Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL) Trading Down 5.8% – Here’s What Happened

Shares of Duolingo, Inc. (NASDAQ:DUOL) traded down 5.8% on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $156.65 and last traded at $156.1350. 1,827,737 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 9% from the average session volume of 2,002,849 shares. The stock had previously closed at $165.80.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on DUOL shares. Truist Financial initiated coverage on Duolingo in a research report on Tuesday, January 6th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $245.00 target price on the stock. Scotiabank decreased their price objective on shares of Duolingo from $600.00 to $300.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Duolingo from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $301.00 to $250.00 in a research note on Monday, January 5th. KeyCorp cut shares of Duolingo from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 6th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of Duolingo from $185.00 to $160.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 8th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twelve have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $308.50.

Duolingo Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 2.82, a current ratio of 2.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $185.52 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $278.39. The firm has a market cap of $7.22 billion, a PE ratio of 19.81, a P/E/G ratio of 0.85 and a beta of 0.87.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Duolingo

In other Duolingo news, insider Severin Hacker sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $172.74, for a total value of $1,727,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 72 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,437.28. This represents a 99.29% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Stephen C. Chen sold 1,514 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.87, for a total transaction of $266,267.18. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 31,542 shares in the company, valued at $5,547,291.54. This trade represents a 4.58% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 53,169 shares of company stock worth $11,605,151 in the last 90 days. 18.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Duolingo by 16.3% in the 2nd quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 186 shares of the company’s stock valued at $76,000 after purchasing an additional 26 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE raised its position in shares of Duolingo by 1.4% during the 2nd quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,968 shares of the company’s stock valued at $807,000 after buying an additional 28 shares during the period. New York Life Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Duolingo by 0.7% in the second quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC now owns 4,067 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,668,000 after acquiring an additional 30 shares during the last quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. lifted its holdings in Duolingo by 3.5% in the second quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. now owns 940 shares of the company’s stock valued at $385,000 after acquiring an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Evergreen Capital Management LLC grew its position in Duolingo by 5.0% in the second quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 818 shares of the company’s stock worth $335,000 after acquiring an additional 39 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.59% of the company’s stock.

Duolingo Company Profile

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.