Yelp Hits All-Time High on 4Q Results and Outlook

Shares of Yelp Inc. jumped to an all-time high Thursday, a day after the online review site reported fourth-quarter revenue and a 2014 revenue guidance that beat Wall Street expectations.

The San Francisco-based company also said it had a monthly average of 120 million visitors during the fourth quarter, up 39 percent from the same period a year before. Yelp said users wrote about 53 million reviews in the quarter, up 47 percent from the same period a year before.

Yelp makes money from advertisements on its website and app. Many of the ads are from the local businesses that users are reviewing, including restaurants, bars, bakeries, hospitals and hair salons. Over the past year, the company has launched new products and tools for businesses, including a free revenue estimator and a food ordering service that lets customers order meals from the site.

Yelp said the food ordering service is generating more than 10,000 food orders each week. Cowen analyst Kevin Kopelman said it’s a small revenue driver for Yelp but he expects the service to grow rapidly.

This article appeared in print in the February 7th, 2014 edition of Hamodia.