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

Duolingo, Inc. (NASDAQ:DUOL) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 1,300,000 shares, a growth of 6.6% from the December 15th total of 1,220,000 shares. Currently, 3.6% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 528,300 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.5 days.

Duolingo Price Performance

Shares of Duolingo stock traded up $9.33 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $351.13. 742,361 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 425,176. Duolingo has a fifty-two week low of $145.05 and a fifty-two week high of $378.48. The company has a quick ratio of 3.09, a current ratio of 3.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.45 billion, a PE ratio of 191.88 and a beta of 0.87. The business has a 50-day moving average of $337.06 and a 200 day moving average of $269.43.

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

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Ahn Luis Von sold 41,759 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $340.29, for a total value of $14,210,170.11. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Severin Hacker sold 188,901 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $339.54, for a total value of $64,139,445.54. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 72 shares in the company, valued at $24,446.88. This represents a 99.96 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 271,124 shares of company stock valued at $91,694,238. Company insiders own 18.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Duolingo

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of Duolingo by 26.9% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 2,663,234 shares of the company’s stock valued at $751,085,000 after purchasing an additional 564,173 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in Duolingo by 3.6% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,076,273 shares of the company’s stock worth $303,530,000 after acquiring an additional 36,923 shares during the last quarter. Dragoneer Investment Group LLC acquired a new stake in Duolingo during the second quarter worth $204,768,000. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Duolingo by 2.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 672,800 shares of the company’s stock worth $189,790,000 after acquiring an additional 16,481 shares during the last quarter. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Duolingo by 30,909.9% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 355,063 shares of the company’s stock worth $100,135,000 after acquiring an additional 353,918 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.59% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on DUOL shares. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded Duolingo from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Bank of America downgraded Duolingo from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $355.00 to $375.00 in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. UBS Group increased their price target on Duolingo from $355.00 to $408.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 14th. DA Davidson increased their price target on Duolingo from $250.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on 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 issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $353.90.

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.