Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL) Stock Rating Lowered by Wall Street Zen

Key Points

• Duolingo has been downgraded from a "buy" to a "hold" rating by Wall Street Zen, reflecting changes in analyst sentiment.
• Despite the downgrade, several brokerages have increased their price targets for Duolingo, with an average target of $451.35 indicating positive outlooks from various analysts.
• Duolingo's stock has recently experienced a decline of 7.7%, opening at $297.86, while showing strong year-over-year revenue growth of 41.5%.

Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL - Free Report) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report released on Saturday.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently commented on the company. Barclays lifted their target price on Duolingo from $375.00 to $390.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. DA Davidson reduced their target price on Duolingo from $600.00 to $500.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, June 25th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on Duolingo from $480.00 to $500.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Scotiabank lifted their target price on Duolingo from $405.00 to $470.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Raymond James Financial reaffirmed a "market perform" rating on shares of Duolingo in a research note on Tuesday, August 26th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $451.35.

Duolingo Trading Down 2.6%

NASDAQ:DUOL traded down $7.88 on Friday, reaching $289.98. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,460,619 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,062,832. Duolingo has a 12-month low of $202.44 and a 12-month high of $544.93. The company has a quick ratio of 2.81, a current ratio of 2.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The firm has a market cap of $13.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 119.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 0.85. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $359.03 and a 200 day moving average price of $387.02.

Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.55 by $0.36. Duolingo had a return on equity of 13.32% and a net margin of 13.24%.The company had revenue of $252.27 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $240.84 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.51 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 41.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Duolingo will post 2.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, General Counsel Stephen C. Chen sold 1,515 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 26th. The stock was sold at an average price of $321.36, for a total transaction of $486,860.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 32,638 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $10,488,547.68. This represents a 4.44% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Natalie Glance sold 2,533 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $329.03, for a total value of $833,432.99. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 122,112 shares of the company's stock, valued at $40,178,511.36. The trade was a 2.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 80,508 shares of company stock valued at $30,993,721. 18.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Duolingo

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Duolingo by 3.3% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,647,951 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,495,733,000 after buying an additional 116,135 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in Duolingo by 24.1% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,346,278 shares of the company's stock valued at $418,073,000 after buying an additional 261,212 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp grew 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 during the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Duolingo by 110.5% during the 1st quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 990,903 shares of the company's stock valued at $307,716,000 after buying an additional 520,069 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Duolingo by 3.2% during 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 last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.59% of the company's stock.

About Duolingo

Duolingo, Inc operates as a mobile learning platform in the United States, the United Kingdom, and internationally. The company offers courses in 40 different languages, including Spanish, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, and Chinese through its Duolingo app. It also provides a digital English language proficiency assessment exam.