Jeremy Stoppelman (Insider Trades), CEO and 10% owner of Yelp Inc. (YELP), sold 263,000 shares in the company on Sept. 23. The price per share was $40 for a total transaction of $10,520,000.
Yelp connects consumers with local businesses via the Yelp app or desktop computer. The company has a market cap of $3.05 billion.
The number and volume of Yelp insider sells decreased each year from 2013 to 2015. There were 164 insider sells totaling 19,716,386 shares in 2013. In the following year the number of insider sells decreased to 108 transactions totaling 1,481,906 shares. In 2015, insider sells totaled 64 transactions, amounting to 656,874 shares.
Including the aforementioned transaction, Stoppelman sold 1,461,464 shares in 98 transactions since 2012. His earliest Yelp insider sell of 10,365 shares at a per share price of $27.82 increased in value by nearly 50%. Yelp Senior Vice President of Legal and User Operations Laurence Wilson (Insider Trades) also sold 36,650 shares for a per share price of $40.16. Since 2013, the number and volume of Yelp insider sells directly relates to Yelp's month-end price. For more information about insider trades with Yelp, click here.
The company reported net revenue of $173.428 million in the second quarter. Net revenue increased from $133.913 million reported by the company in the previous year’s second quarter. Net income is also up from -$1.305 million, or -2 cents per share, to $449,000, or 1 cent per share, when comparing the same time periods.
Stoppelman commented that the second quarter showed “local revenue growth accelerating to 41% year over year” and that the company plans to execute its “three strategic priorities of growing the core local advertising business, boosting awareness of Yelp and driving transactions.”
On Sept. 20, the company announced the launch of a new developer program, Yelp Fusion. The development of Yelp Fusion is in response to increasing demand for local data and content for mobile platforms. Yelp Fusion includes access to much broader content and search tools to help developers integrate Yelp Fusion and feature higher quality photos and more review content. Yelp also announced the conversion of its Class A and Class B stock into a single class of common stock on a one-for-one basis. The conversion will have no effect on the economic rights of Class A and Class B shareholders; however the different voting powers of the two classes was eliminated. The company does not expect the conversion to have any material effect on future operations.
Paul Tudor Jones (Trades, Portfolio) and Jim Simons (Trades, Portfolio) both acquired stake in YELP during the second quarter of 2016. Jones acquired 17,906 shares and Simons purchased 33,400 shares for an average per share price of $24.33. Both Jones and Simons sold out all held shares with the company in the previous quarter. Jones sold 41,995 and Simon sold 489,700 shares at an average per share price of $20.47. For more information about guru trades with Yelp, click here.
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