Short Interest in Duolingo, Inc. (NASDAQ:DUOL) Declines By 5.8%

Duolingo, Inc. (NASDAQ:DUOL) saw a large drop in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,940,000 shares, a drop of 5.8% from the March 15th total of 2,060,000 shares. Currently, 5.4% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 645,900 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.0 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Ahn Luis Von sold 13,600 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $208.34, for a total transaction of $2,833,424.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Matthew Skaruppa sold 8,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $178.67, for a total value of $1,429,360.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 69,688 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,451,154.96. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Ahn Luis Von sold 13,600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $208.34, for a total transaction of $2,833,424.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 113,223 shares of company stock valued at $23,682,665. Company insiders own 19.85% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Duolingo

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in DUOL. Durable Capital Partners LP increased its holdings in Duolingo by 59.8% in the 1st quarter. Durable Capital Partners LP now owns 3,248,046 shares of the company’s stock valued at $308,922,000 after purchasing an additional 1,215,144 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of Duolingo by 605.8% in the second quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,126,165 shares of the company’s stock worth $98,596,000 after acquiring an additional 966,604 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Duolingo by 24.8% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,357,551 shares of the company’s stock worth $224,510,000 after acquiring an additional 468,057 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Duolingo in the fourth quarter worth $32,403,000. Finally, BlackRock Inc. grew its stake in shares of Duolingo by 95.6% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 822,978 shares of the company’s stock worth $78,275,000 after acquiring an additional 402,222 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.59% of the company’s stock.

Duolingo Trading Down 0.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ DUOL traded down $1.74 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $196.43. 57,515 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 624,482. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $209.09 and a 200 day simple moving average of $201.00. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 582.87 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 3.24 and a current ratio of 3.24. Duolingo has a twelve month low of $116.82 and a twelve month high of $245.87.

Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The company reported $0.26 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.21 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $150.99 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 expect that Duolingo will post 1.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on DUOL. Needham & Company LLC raised their price target on shares of Duolingo from $210.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. assumed coverage on shares of Duolingo in a research note on Monday, March 11th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $270.00 price target on the stock. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of Duolingo from $230.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Duolingo from $230.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Duolingo from $217.00 to $282.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $245.13.

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.