More and More Top Investors Are Selling Yelp Inc (YELP)

Because Yelp Inc (NYSE:YELP) has faced a declination in interest from the entirety of the hedge funds we track, we can see that there was a specific group of hedgies who were dropping their full holdings heading into Q4. At the top of the heap, Eminence Capital dropped the biggest position of all the hedgies tracked by Insider Monkey, valued at about $129.1 million in call options underlying YELP shares, though as mentioned, Eminence maintains a large long position. James Dinan’s fund, York Capital Management, also said goodbye to its call options, about $112.6 million worth. These transactions are intriguing to say the least, as aggregate hedge fund interest fell by 17 funds heading into Q4.

Let’s go over hedge fund activity in other stocks similar to Yelp Inc (NYSE:YELP). These stocks are Knowles Corp (NYSE:KN), 51job, Inc. (ADR) (NASDAQ:JOBS), National Bank of Greece (ADR) (NYSE:NBG), and Beacon Roofing Supply, Inc. (NASDAQ:BECN). This group of stocks’ market valuations are similar to YELP’s market valuation.

As you can see these stocks had an average of 11.75 hedge funds with bullish positions and the average amount invested in these stocks was $96 million. That figure was $516 million in YELP’s case. Beacon Roofing Supply, Inc. (NASDAQ:BECN) is the most popular stock in this table. On the other hand National Bank of Greece (ADR) (NYSE:NBG) is the least popular one with only 5 bullish hedge fund positions. Compared to these stocks Yelp Inc (NYSE:YELP) is more popular among hedge funds. Even though the massive decline in ownership of the stock is a big warning sign, YELP does remain far more popular and has far more capital invested in it than stocks with a similar valuation. Thus, it may still be worth considering this stock for addition to one’s portfolio.