Wells Fargo & Company Initiates Coverage on Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL)

Key Points

• Wells Fargo & Company has initiated coverage on Duolingo with an "underweight" rating and a price target of $239.00, suggesting a potential downside of 11.87% from its previous close.
• The consensus rating for Duolingo among analysts is "Moderate Buy," with a target price of approximately $420.63, indicating varying views from analysts on the stock's potential.
• Duolingo reported a 41.5% increase in quarterly revenue year-over-year, with earnings per share of $0.91, exceeding analyst expectations by $0.36.

Analysts at Wells Fargo & Company started coverage on shares of Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL - Get Free Report) in a research report issued to clients and investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm set an "underweight" rating and a $239.00 price target on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company's price target points to a potential downside of 11.87% from the stock's previous close.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on DUOL. Robert W. Baird initiated coverage on shares of Duolingo in a research report on Friday. They set a "neutral" rating and a $280.00 target price for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of Duolingo from $500.00 to $515.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Duolingo from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, August 30th. KeyCorp raised shares of Duolingo from a "sector weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $460.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, August 18th. Finally, UBS Group reissued an "overweight" rating on shares of Duolingo in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Duolingo presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $420.63.

Duolingo Stock Performance

Shares of DUOL opened at $271.18 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 2.81, a quick ratio of 2.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10. The stock has a market cap of $12.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 111.60, a PEG ratio of 1.81 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a 50-day moving average of $348.75 and a two-hundred day moving average of $382.74. Duolingo has a 12-month low of $204.00 and a 12-month high of $544.93.

Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.55 by $0.36. The company had revenue of $252.27 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $240.84 million. Duolingo had a net margin of 13.24% and a return on equity of 13.32%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 41.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.51 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Duolingo will post 2.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Duolingo

In other Duolingo news, insider Severin Hacker sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $344.41, for a total transaction of $3,444,100.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 72 shares of the company's stock, valued at $24,797.52. This trade represents a 99.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Robert Meese sold 1,444 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $329.03, for a total transaction of $475,119.32. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 120,080 shares in the company, valued at approximately $39,509,922.40. This represents a 1.19% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 70,508 shares of company stock valued at $25,742,721 over the last 90 days. 18.30% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Duolingo

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 116,135 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of Duolingo by 24.1% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,346,278 shares of the company's stock worth $418,073,000 after acquiring an additional 261,212 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of Duolingo by 0.5% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,164,387 shares of the company's stock worth $477,422,000 after acquiring an additional 6,109 shares in the last quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Duolingo by 110.5% in the first quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 990,903 shares of the company's stock worth $307,716,000 after acquiring an additional 520,069 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Duolingo by 3.2% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 759,956 shares of the company's stock worth $311,930,000 after acquiring an additional 23,356 shares in 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.

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