Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL) Stock Price Down 3.1% After Insider Selling

Duolingo, Inc. (NASDAQ:DUOL)’s share price was down 3.1% during trading on Friday after an insider sold shares in the company. The stock traded as low as $324.83 and last traded at $324.83. Approximately 34,817 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 95% from the average daily volume of 684,435 shares. The stock had previously closed at $335.22.

Specifically, insider Severin Hacker sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $336.82, for a total transaction of $3,368,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 72 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $24,251.04. This represents a 99.29 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Ahn Luis Von sold 41,759 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $340.29, for a total transaction of $14,210,170.11. The disclosure for this sale can be found here.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. JMP Securities downgraded Duolingo from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, October 14th. Seaport Res Ptn cut Duolingo from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on Duolingo from $360.00 to $400.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Scotiabank began coverage on shares of Duolingo in a research report on Thursday, December 5th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $425.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Duolingo from $183.00 to $295.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Duolingo currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $353.90.

Duolingo Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 3.09 and a current ratio of 3.09. The business’s 50-day moving average is $322.88 and its 200-day moving average is $250.55. The company has a market capitalization of $15.05 billion, a PE ratio of 186.95 and a beta of 0.85.

Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.35 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $192.59 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $189.19 million. Duolingo had a net margin of 12.59% and a return on equity of 11.74%. The business’s revenue was up 39.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.06 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Duolingo, Inc. will post 2.02 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Duolingo

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Dragoneer Investment Group LLC bought a new position in Duolingo in the 2nd quarter worth about $204,768,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Duolingo by 42.2% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 342,280 shares of the company’s stock worth $96,530,000 after buying an additional 101,653 shares in the last quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky lifted its stake in shares of Duolingo by 23.7% in the second quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 67,114 shares of the company’s stock worth $14,005,000 after buying an additional 12,860 shares in the last quarter. Lisanti Capital Growth LLC grew its holdings in shares of Duolingo by 17.8% during the third quarter. Lisanti Capital Growth LLC now owns 11,645 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,284,000 after buying an additional 1,760 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. bought a new stake in shares of Duolingo during the third quarter valued at approximately $4,350,000. 91.59% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.