YELP
9/9 ScoreYelp Inc.
Analysis Date: February 2, 2026
Yelp Inc. operates a platform that connects consumers with local businesses in the United States and internationally. The company's platform covers various local business categories, including restaurants, shopping, beauty and fitness, health, and other categories, as well as home, local, auto, professional, pets, events, real estate, and financial services. It provides free and paid advertising products to businesses, which include cost-per-click search advertising and multi-location Ad products, as well as enables businesses to deliver targeted search advertising to local audiences; and business listing page products. The company also offers other services comprising Yelp Reservations that provide online reservations for restaurants, nightlife, and other venues directly from their Yelp business pages; Yelp Waitlist, a subscription-based waitlist management solution that allows consumers to check wait times and join waitlists remotely, as well as businesses to manage seating and server rotation; Yelp Knowledge program that offers business owners local analytics and insights through access to its historical data and other proprietary content; and Yelp Fusion, which offers free and paid access to content and data for consumer-facing enterprise use through publicly available APIs. In addition, it provides content licensing, as well as allows third-party data providers to update and manage business listing information on behalf of businesses. Further, the company offers its products directly through its sales force; indirectly through partners; and online through its website, as well as non-advertising partner arrangements. It has strategic partnership with Grubhub for providing consumers with a service to place food orders for pickup and delivery. Yelp Inc. was incorporated in 2004 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.
Buffettology Criteria
All 9 of 9 criteria passed
High ROE
Return on Equity > 12%
Value: 20.0%
High ROIC
Return on Invested Capital > 9%
Value: 16.6%
Cash Machine
FCF / Assets > 5%
Value: 32.9%
Fair Valuation
Earnings Yield > 3.5%
Value: 11.4%
Share Buybacks
Share Count is Dropping
Value: -6.1%
Defensible Moat
Gross Profit Margin > 40%
Value: 90.3%
Simple Business
Not in a speculative sector (e.g., Biotech)
Value: Communication Services
Conservative Debt
Debt to Equity < 1.5
Value: 0.03x
Consistent Growth
5-Year Growth is Positive
Value: 964.0%
Analysis Summary
This company demonstrates a solid financial foundation, with impressive returns on invested capital and equity, suggesting efficient use of its resources. The market also appears to recognize its value, as indicated by the reasonable valuation, and importantly, it possesses a powerful competitive advantage that should protect its future earnings for years to come. While growth is modest, the overall picture presents a compelling case for further investigation into this business.
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