Yelp Shares Surge as Lockup Ends
August 29, 2012 Leave a Comment
Shares of consumer reviews website Yelp Inc recorded their biggest one-day advance on Wednesday, the day insiders were free to sell their holdings, surprising investors.
The stock rose 20 percent to $21.84 with more than six-and-a-half million shares traded, putting it on track for its busiest day since its debut in March. Shares rose as high as $22.89, and the rally briefly bumped the stock back above its debut price of $22.01 a share.
Part of the stock’s rise may be related to the relatively high percentage of shares being borrowed for shorting purposes. About 97 percent of the shares available for borrowing for short bets were borrowed. This only amounts to about 4 percent of the total shares outstanding, according to Data Explorers, a Markit company.
“I haven’t seen a good old-fashioned tech short-squeeze in a long time, but this has all the behavior of that,” said Mike Shea, managing partner and trader at Direct Access Partners LLC in New York.READ MORE