Duolingo, Inc. (NASDAQ:DUOL) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

Duolingo, Inc. (NASDAQ:DUOL) saw a large growth in short interest during the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,060,000 shares, a growth of 16.4% from the February 29th total of 1,770,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 648,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.2 days. Currently, 5.7% of the shares of the company are short sold.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. assumed coverage on shares of Duolingo in a report on Monday, March 11th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $270.00 price objective on the stock. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of Duolingo from $230.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Duolingo from $230.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Seaport Res Ptn reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Duolingo in a report on Tuesday, February 27th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Duolingo from $173.00 to $243.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $235.11.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ahn Luis Von sold 13,600 shares of Duolingo stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $208.34, for a total value of $2,833,424.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Ahn Luis Von sold 13,600 shares of Duolingo stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $208.34, for a total value of $2,833,424.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, General Counsel Stephen C. Chen sold 18,000 shares of Duolingo stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $206.87, for a total transaction of $3,723,660.00. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel now directly owns 35,033 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,247,276.71. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 173,223 shares of company stock valued at $36,232,655. Insiders own 19.85% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Duolingo

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Baillie Gifford & Co. raised its position in shares of Duolingo by 5.0% in the third quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 4,488,629 shares of the company’s stock valued at $744,529,000 after buying an additional 213,552 shares during the last quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP raised its position in shares of Duolingo by 10.1% in the fourth quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP now owns 4,156,738 shares of the company’s stock valued at $295,669,000 after buying an additional 379,844 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Duolingo by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,320,429 shares of the company’s stock valued at $753,239,000 after buying an additional 129,290 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. raised its position in shares of Duolingo by 15.0% in the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 2,323,082 shares of the company’s stock valued at $332,061,000 after buying an additional 303,206 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Whale Rock Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Duolingo by 0.7% in the second quarter. Whale Rock Capital Management LLC now owns 1,328,760 shares of the company’s stock valued at $189,933,000 after buying an additional 8,668 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.59% of the company’s stock.

Duolingo Price Performance

DUOL traded down $5.71 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $212.50. 504,251 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 670,235. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 3.24 and a quick ratio of 3.24. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.11 billion, a PE ratio of 625.02 and a beta of 0.84. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $203.10 and its 200 day moving average price is $196.67. Duolingo has a 1-year low of $116.82 and a 1-year high of $245.87.

Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 28th. The company reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.21 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $150.99 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $146.98 million. Duolingo had a net margin of 3.03% and a return on equity of 2.64%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Duolingo will post 1.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.