Morgan Stanley Increases Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL) Price Target to $500.00

Key Points

• Morgan Stanley has increased Duolingo's price target from $480 to $500, indicating a potential upside of 12.58% from its current price.
• Despite the favorable outlook from Morgan Stanley, JMP Securities and others have lowered their price targets for Duolingo, signaling mixed analyst sentiment.
• Duolingo reported $252.27 million in revenue for the last quarter, significantly surpassing expectations, and achieved an earnings per share of $0.91, beating estimates by $0.36.

Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL - Get Free Report) had its price target lifted by research analysts at Morgan Stanley from $480.00 to $500.00 in a report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an "overweight" rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley's target price would suggest a potential upside of 12.58% from the stock's current price.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on DUOL. JMP Securities decreased their target price on shares of Duolingo from $475.00 to $450.00 and set a "market outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Barclays boosted their price objective on Duolingo from $375.00 to $390.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Duolingo from $580.00 to $500.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. DA Davidson dropped their price target on shares of Duolingo from $600.00 to $500.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 25th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on shares of Duolingo from $340.00 to $403.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, May 5th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Duolingo presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $453.20.

Duolingo Trading Up 29.3%

NASDAQ DUOL traded up $100.53 during trading on Thursday, hitting $444.14. The company had a trading volume of 3,845,649 shares, compared to its average volume of 929,557. The company has a current ratio of 2.68, a quick ratio of 2.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06. Duolingo has a one year low of $170.43 and a one year high of $544.93. The company's fifty day moving average is $416.29 and its 200-day moving average is $391.44. The company has a market cap of $20.19 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 219.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 0.87.

Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 6th. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.55 by $0.36. Duolingo had a net margin of 11.93% and a return on equity of 11.70%. The firm had revenue of $252.27 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $240.84 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.51 earnings per share. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 41.5% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Duolingo will post 2.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Duolingo

In other news, insider Severin Hacker sold 10,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $360.33, for a total transaction of $3,603,300.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 72 shares in the company, valued at approximately $25,943.76. The trade was a 99.29% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Insiders sold 40,000 shares of company stock valued at $17,495,200 over the last three months. 15.67% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Duolingo

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Contravisory Investment Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Duolingo in the first quarter worth about $25,000. Rise Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Duolingo by 43.6% during the 1st quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 79 shares of the company's stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 24 shares during the period. Summit Securities Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Duolingo during the first quarter worth $28,000. Quarry LP boosted its holdings in Duolingo by 250.0% during the fourth quarter. Quarry LP now owns 91 shares of the company's stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 65 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Brooklyn Investment Group grew its position in shares of Duolingo by 4,750.0% during the 1st quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group now owns 97 shares of the company's stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 95 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.59% of the company's stock.

Duolingo Company Profile

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.

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