UPDATE: Stifel Initiates Coverage on Yelp with Buy Rating, $85 PT on Strategic Asset Value, Low Penetration Rate

In a report published Friday, Stifel analyst Michael Purcell initiated coverage on

with a Buy rating and $85.00 price target. In the report, Stifel noted, “Yelp has enhanced local business discovery, enabling users to find, connect and, more recently, transact with merchants. Consumers use Yelp to review a comprehensive database of businesses for opinions, reviews, and ratings. Yelp is clearly more than an online local directory. With over 115mn unique monthly visitors, we believe Yelp has strategic asset value in the Internet ecosystem and has an extremely low penetration rate against the addressable market of advertisers. We are initiating coverage with a Buy rating on the shares and a $85 target price.” Yelp closed on Thursday at $67.25.