Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL) Sets New 52-Week Low After Analyst Downgrade

Duolingo, Inc. (NASDAQ:DUOL) reached a new 52-week low during trading on Tuesday after JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on the stock from $300.00 to $200.00. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Duolingo traded as low as $147.70 and last traded at $150.8540, with a volume of 404828 shares. The stock had previously closed at $150.16.

A number of other research firms have also recently weighed in on DUOL. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Duolingo from $300.00 to $275.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. Scotiabank cut their target price on Duolingo from $600.00 to $300.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on Duolingo from $425.00 to $250.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 7th. Citizens Jmp lowered shares of Duolingo from a “market outperform” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, November 6th. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Duolingo from $390.00 to $230.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 6th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $303.50.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Matthew Skaruppa sold 3,059 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.76, for a total transaction of $537,649.84. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 37,487 shares in the company, valued at approximately $6,588,715.12. This represents a 7.54% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Natalie Glance sold 2,534 shares of Duolingo stock in a transaction on Monday, November 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $177.95, for a total transaction of $450,925.30. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 113,637 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,221,704.15. The trade was a 2.18% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders sold 43,169 shares of company stock worth $8,457,951. 18.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Duolingo by 3.3% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,647,951 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,495,733,000 after purchasing an additional 116,135 shares during the period. Baillie Gifford & Co. grew its holdings in shares of Duolingo by 28.6% in the third quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 2,827,834 shares of the company’s stock worth $910,110,000 after purchasing an additional 628,943 shares during the last quarter. Dragoneer Investment Group LLC increased its stake in Duolingo by 324.4% in the 3rd quarter. Dragoneer Investment Group LLC now owns 1,580,787 shares of the company’s stock worth $508,760,000 after buying an additional 1,208,346 shares during the period. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Duolingo by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,164,387 shares of the company’s stock valued at $477,422,000 after buying an additional 6,109 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Duolingo by 3.2% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 759,956 shares of the company’s stock valued at $311,930,000 after buying an additional 23,356 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.59% of the company’s stock.

Duolingo Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $6.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.10, a P/E/G ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 0.87. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $180.78 and its 200 day simple moving average is $271.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 2.82 and a current ratio of 2.82.

Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported $5.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.72 by $5.23. The firm had revenue of $271.71 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $260.14 million. Duolingo had a return on equity of 14.02% and a net margin of 40.03%.Duolingo’s quarterly revenue was up 41.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.49 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Duolingo, Inc. will post 2.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Duolingo

Duolingo, Inc (NASDAQ:DUOL) is a technology-driven education company that operates a widely used language-learning platform. Founded in 2011 by Luis von Ahn and Severin Hacker, Duolingo offers a freemium service featuring bite-sized lessons, gamified exercises and adaptive learning algorithms. The company’s core product is its mobile and web application, which supports instruction in more than 40 languages, ranging from widely spoken tongues such as English and Spanish to lesser-taught options including Irish and Swahili.

In addition to its flagship language courses, Duolingo has expanded its product suite to include the Duolingo English Test, an on-demand, computer-based English proficiency exam designed for academic and professional admissions.