YELP · Consumer discretionary(services-personal services) · 10 years of annual accounts filed with the SEC · latest fiscal year ended 2025-12-31
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Yelp Inc reported revenue of $1.5 billion in fiscal 2025, after growing 8.3% a year over the previous 9 years. Its operating margin widened from -0.3% in 2016 to 12.6%. Of the $2.2 billion its operations generated over 10 years, 86.6% went to buybacks and 15.4% back into the business; the share count fell 15.7%. On the accounting screens, it passes 6 of 7 Piotroski tests, its Altman Z'' of 2.26 is in the grey zone and its Beneish M-score is below the -1.78 line; none of the six cross-checks between its statements fires.
Revenue, fiscal 20251.5B+8.3% a year over 9 years
Operating margin12.6%gross margin —
Return on invested capital—
Free cash flow after stock pay189.7M12.9% of revenue
Net debt ÷ EBITDA—net debt —
Piotroski F-score6/7tests of improvement passed
Is it growing?
Revenue and the operating income it turns into. Growth that does not reach operating income is growth bought with margin.
RevenueOperating income
-0.5B00.5B1.0B1.5B
2016Revenue 716.1MOperating income -2.0M
2017Revenue 850.8MOperating income 179.6M
2018Revenue 942.8MOperating income 25.9M
2019Revenue 1.0BOperating income 35.5M
2020Revenue 872.9MOperating income -38.8M
2021Revenue 1.0BOperating income 31.5M
2022Revenue 1.2BOperating income 58.4M
2023Revenue 1.3BOperating income 79.0M
2024Revenue 1.4BOperating income 151.0M
2025Revenue 1.5BOperating income 184.5M
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Compound growth a year
3 yrs
5 yrs
9 yrs
Revenue
+7.1%
+10.9%
+8.3%
Operating income
+46.8%
—
—
Net income
+58.8%
—
—
Earnings per share
+65.3%
—
—
Free cash flow per share
+31.6%
+20.2%
+15.6%
Shares
-3.9%
-2.3%
-1.9%
Falling shares are buybacks: each remaining share owns more of the company.
Does it earn more than its capital costs?
Margins say how much of each sale is kept; return on invested capital says how much the business earns on the money it needs to operate. Growth only creates value when that return is above the cost of the capital.
Needs a cost of capital, which comes from the valuation below.
Return on equity
20.5%
Return on assets
15.2%
Asset turnover
1.53×
Research & development
20.3% of revenue
Overheads (SG&A)
12.4% of revenue
Is the profit cash, and where does the cash go?
Net income is an accounting opinion; free cash flow is what was left in the bank after investing. Stock-based pay does not leave the bank — shareholders pay it through dilution — so it is shown taken off as well.
Net incomeFree cash flowAfter stock-based pay
-100M0100M200M300M400M
2016Net income -1.7MFree cash flow 103.9MAfter stock-based pay 17.6M
2017Net income 153.0MFree cash flow 137.4MAfter stock-based pay 37.0M
2018Net income 55.4MFree cash flow 115.2MAfter stock-based pay 829,000
2019Net income 40.9MFree cash flow 167.3MAfter stock-based pay 45.7M
2020Net income -19.4MFree cash flow 144.7MAfter stock-based pay 20.1M
2021Net income 39.7MFree cash flow 184.4MAfter stock-based pay 32.7M
2022Net income 36.3MFree cash flow 160.3MAfter stock-based pay 4.2M
2023Net income 99.2MFree cash flow 279.4MAfter stock-based pay 106.0M
2024Net income 132.8MFree cash flow 248.5MAfter stock-based pay 90.3M
2025Net income 145.6MFree cash flow 323.7MAfter stock-based pay 189.7M
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Where 10 years of operating cash went, 2016–2025
2.2B generated by the business. Each band is its share of that total.
Reinvested in the business 15%340.5M
Acquisitions 5%116.7M
Dividends 0%0
Share buybacks 87%1.9B
More than it generated: funded with cash or new debt -7%-162.1M
Over the same years it paid 1.3B in stock. The share count fell 15.7%. 589.6M of the buybacks went beyond offsetting that dilution.
Per share
Earnings per shareFree cash flow per shareDividend per share
-$2$0$2$4$6
2016Earnings per share $-0.02Free cash flow per share $1.35
2017Earnings per share $1.76Free cash flow per share $1.58
2018Earnings per share $0.62Free cash flow per share $1.30
2019Earnings per share $0.52Free cash flow per share $2.15
2020Earnings per share $-0.27Free cash flow per share $1.98
2021Earnings per share $0.50Free cash flow per share $2.35
2022Earnings per share $0.50Free cash flow per share $2.18
2023Earnings per share $1.35Free cash flow per share $3.80
2024Earnings per share $1.88Free cash flow per share $3.52
2025Earnings per share $2.24Free cash flow per share $4.97
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Shares outstanding
Diluted shares
60M70M80M90M
2016Diluted shares 77.2M
2017Diluted shares 87.2M
2018Diluted shares 88.7M
2019Diluted shares 78.0M
2020Diluted shares 73.0M
2021Diluted shares 78.6M
2022Diluted shares 73.4M
2023Diluted shares 73.6M
2024Diluted shares 70.6M
2025Diluted shares 65.1M
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Debt and liquidity
Debt is not bad in itself; debt the business cannot service in a bad year is. Net debt is debt minus cash, and below zero the company holds more cash than it owes.
Net debt
-300M-200M-100M0
2016Net debt -254.6M
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
2016201720182019202020212022202320242025
Net debt ÷ EBITDA
—
Interest coverage
— operating income ÷ interest
Current ratio
2.99 current assets ÷ current liabilities
Cash conversion cycle
— collects in 38d
Three classic screens of the accounts
Each asks a different question of the same statements — is it improving, does it look like a company heading for distress, do the accounts resemble ones that were manipulated. None is a verdict; each shows what moves it.
Piotroski F-score
Is the business improving? Nine yes-or-no tests, this year against last.
6of 7 tests passed
✓ProfitableReturn on assets above zeropassed
✓Cash from operationsOperating cash flow above zeropassed
✓Profitability improvedReturn on assets higher than a year beforepassed
✓Profit backed by cashOperating cash flow above net income (low accruals)passed
–Less long-term debtLong-term debt as a share of assets fell — not reportedno data
✕More liquidCurrent ratio higher than a year beforefailed
✓No new sharesShare count did not growpassed
–Better gross marginGross margin higher than a year before — not reportedno data
✓Sells more per assetAsset turnover higher than a year beforepassed
Where it misleads: it measures change, not level. An excellent business that stood still for a year scores low; a poor one recovering from a disaster scores high.
Altman Z''-score
Does the balance sheet look like those of companies that went bankrupt?
2.26grey zone
1.12.6
Working capital ÷ assets 0.36 × 6.56+2.35
Retained earnings ÷ assets -1.35 × 3.26-4.39
Operating income ÷ assets 0.19 × 6.72+1.29
Equity ÷ liabilities 2.87 × 1.05+3.01
Where it misleads: buybacks. A company that returns so much cash that its equity turns small or negative sinks the last two ratios without being anywhere near bankruptcy. Banks and insurers do not fit the model at all.
Beneish M-score
Do the accounts resemble those of companies that manipulated their earnings?
-3.67below the -1.78 line
-1.78
Receivables vs sales 0.95+0.87
Gross margin slipping 1.00 (not reported, set to 1)+0.53
Soft assets 0.92+0.37
Sales growth 1.04+0.93
Slower depreciation 0.99+0.11
Overheads vs sales 0.95-0.16
Profit not in cash -0.24-1.11
Leverage rising 1.14-0.37
Where it misleads: fast growth and acquisitions. Sales growth carries a heavy weight, so a company growing 50% a year scores like a suspect without having done anything. It is a screen from a 1999 study, not an accusation.
Where the statements disagree
Cross-checks between the income statement, the balance sheet and the cash flow for the latest year, each with the benign reading and the worrying one.
None of the six cross-checks fires for the latest year: receivables and inventory move with revenue, profit turns into cash, investment keeps up with depreciation, the tax rate is ordinary and debt is moderate.
What is it worth, under which assumptions?
A company is worth the cash it will generate, brought back to today. This model projects revenue with growth that fades over the years, applies a free cash flow margin, and discounts the result at the cost of capital. Every assumption says where it came from, and all of them can be changed.
With a free cash flow margin at or below zero in year ten, the business never generates cash for its owners and a DCF says nothing useful. Set a positive margin for year ten to see what it would take.
What it has filed lately
The last twelve months at the SEC, most important first: annual and quarterly reports, events, large holders and insiders.
Every Form 4 filed in the last twelve months, read line by line: 6 filings by 5 people. Open-market purchases and sales are counted apart from awards, option exercises and shares withheld for taxes.
Bought on the open market—none in the period
Sold on the open market$304,9833 sale(s) by 3 insider(s)
Under pre-arranged plans100%of the sales followed a 10b5-1 plan set months earlier
A Form 4 says what happened, when, how many shares and at what price. It does not say why: a sale can be diversification, a tax bill or a plan fixed months earlier, and an award is pay, not a purchase. Nothing here is a reason to buy or sell anything.
Companies like this one
Same SEC industry (services-personal services) first, then the rest of consumer discretionary.
Accounts from the company's own SEC filings; lines some companies do not report are shown as a dash rather than estimated. The risk-free rate is the 10-year US Treasury yield. A DCF is a way of making assumptions explicit, not a forecast: it states what the company would be worth if the assumptions held. The scores are screens that point where to look, not verdicts. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell.
