Pacer Advisors Inc. Cuts Stake in Duolingo, Inc. $DUOL

Key Points

• Pacer Advisors cut its Duolingo stake by 18.2% in the fourth quarter, leaving it with 46,213 shares valued at about $8.1 million.
• Analysts remain cautious on Duolingo: the stock has a consensus rating of Hold, with 19 Hold ratings, 2 Buy ratings, and an average target price of $197.61.
• Duolingo’s latest earnings beat expectations, with EPS of $0.89 versus estimates of $0.79 and revenue of $291.97 million, up 26.5% year over year.

Pacer Advisors Inc. decreased its stake in Duolingo, Inc. (NASDAQ:DUOL - Free Report) by 18.2% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 46,213 shares of the company's stock after selling 10,251 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. owned approximately 0.10% of Duolingo worth $8,110,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. KERR FINANCIAL PLANNING Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Duolingo during the 3rd quarter valued at about $47,000. EFG International AG acquired a new stake in Duolingo in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Globeflex Capital L P acquired a new stake in Duolingo in the second quarter valued at approximately $77,000. AlphaCentric Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Duolingo during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Finally, Huntington National Bank raised its stake in shares of Duolingo by 103.0% during the third quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 205 shares of the company's stock valued at $66,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.59% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on DUOL shares. DA Davidson restated a "neutral" rating and issued a $120.00 target price on shares of Duolingo in a research note on Wednesday, June 17th. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price target on shares of Duolingo from $250.00 to $105.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 2nd. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of Duolingo from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. Bank of America reissued a "neutral" rating and issued a $100.00 price objective on shares of Duolingo in a research report on Friday, February 27th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Duolingo from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 28th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nineteen have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $197.61.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Duolingo news, General Counsel Stephen C. Chen sold 1,977 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.61, for a total transaction of $224,606.97. Following the sale, the general counsel directly owned 52,807 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $5,999,403.27. This represents a 3.61% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, insider Robert Meese sold 1,420 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $112.16, for a total transaction of $159,267.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 170,745 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,150,759.20. The trade was a 0.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders sold a total of 9,506 shares of company stock valued at $1,073,864 over the last 90 days. 16.62% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Duolingo Price Performance

Shares of Duolingo stock opened at $125.56 on Monday. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $109.08 and a 200 day moving average price of $127.63. Duolingo, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $87.89 and a fifty-two week high of $483.03. The firm has a market cap of $5.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.45, a P/E/G ratio of 0.98 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a quick ratio of 2.62, a current ratio of 2.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The company reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $291.97 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $288.60 million. Duolingo had a return on equity of 14.07% and a net margin of 38.44%.Duolingo's quarterly revenue was up 26.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.72 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Duolingo, Inc. will post 2.76 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.

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