Short Interest in Duolingo, Inc. (NASDAQ:DUOL) Grows By 22.8%

Duolingo, Inc. (NASDAQ:DUOL) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,510,000 shares, a growth of 22.8% from the February 28th total of 1,230,000 shares. Approximately 4.0% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 793,400 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.9 days.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Ahn Luis Von sold 8,000 shares of Duolingo stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $321.00, for a total transaction of $2,568,000.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Natalie Glance sold 2,667 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $435.28, for a total transaction of $1,160,891.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 129,572 shares in the company, valued at $56,400,100.16. This trade represents a 2.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 100,850 shares of company stock worth $34,389,695. 18.30% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Duolingo

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in DUOL. FMR LLC raised its position in Duolingo by 39.9% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,726,561 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,208,263,000 after purchasing an additional 1,063,327 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Duolingo during the 4th quarter valued at about $152,296,000. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Duolingo by 548.8% during the 4th quarter. T. Rowe Price Investment Management Inc. now owns 470,834 shares of the company’s stock valued at $152,659,000 after purchasing an additional 398,259 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Duolingo by 53.5% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,085,066 shares of the company’s stock valued at $351,811,000 after buying an additional 378,225 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Voloridge Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Duolingo by 270.3% in the 4th quarter. Voloridge Investment Management LLC now owns 146,674 shares of the company’s stock worth $47,556,000 after buying an additional 107,063 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.59% of the company’s stock.

Duolingo Price Performance

NASDAQ DUOL traded up $1.38 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $311.92. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 44,151 shares, compared to its average volume of 719,311. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $346.93 and a 200 day moving average of $325.09. Duolingo has a one year low of $145.05 and a one year high of $441.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.11 billion, a PE ratio of 171.01 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 3.09 and a quick ratio of 3.09.

Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 27th. The company reported $0.31 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.50 by ($0.19). The company had revenue of $209.55 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $205.49 million. Duolingo had a return on equity of 11.74% and a net margin of 12.59%. Analysts expect that Duolingo will post 2.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on DUOL shares. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of Duolingo in a report on Friday, January 24th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $370.00 price target on the stock. Needham & Company LLC boosted their price target on shares of Duolingo from $385.00 to $400.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. DA Davidson raised their price objective on shares of Duolingo from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 27th. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Duolingo from $295.00 to $330.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on Duolingo from $275.00 to $340.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $377.08.

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.