Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL) Earns Equal Weight Rating from Morgan Stanley

Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL)‘s stock had its “equal weight” rating restated by Morgan Stanley in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, Marketbeat reports. They presently have a $100.00 target price on the stock, down from their prior target price of $245.00. Morgan Stanley’s target price would suggest a potential downside of 0.99% from the company’s previous close.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Scotiabank reduced their target price on Duolingo from $600.00 to $300.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 6th. Bank of America upgraded Duolingo from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $301.00 to $250.00 in a report on Monday, January 5th. Needham & Company LLC reduced their price objective on shares of Duolingo from $300.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of Duolingo from $300.00 to $200.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. Finally, KeyCorp lowered shares of Duolingo from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $220.26.

Duolingo Stock Performance

NASDAQ:DUOL opened at $101.00 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $144.48 and its two-hundred day moving average is $223.84. Duolingo has a 1-year low of $91.99 and a 1-year high of $544.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 2.82 and a quick ratio of 2.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.85, a PEG ratio of 0.54 and a beta of 0.86.

Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $282.87 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $275.95 million. Duolingo had a net margin of 40.03% and a return on equity of 14.02%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 35.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Duolingo will post 2.03 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Duolingo

In other news, CFO Matthew Skaruppa sold 3,986 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.52, for a total transaction of $452,490.72. Following the sale, the chief financial officer owned 31,631 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,590,751.12. This represents a 11.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, General Counsel Stephen C. Chen sold 1,901 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.26, for a total transaction of $215,307.26. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 30,545 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,459,526.70. The trade was a 5.86% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 14,939 shares of company stock valued at $1,676,291. Insiders own 15.67% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Duolingo

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Baillie Gifford & Co. increased its position in shares of Duolingo by 71.9% during the fourth quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 4,861,445 shares of the company’s stock worth $853,184,000 after acquiring an additional 2,033,611 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Duolingo by 3.3% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,647,951 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,495,733,000 after purchasing an additional 116,135 shares in the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its stake in Duolingo by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 2,241,378 shares of the company’s stock worth $393,362,000 after purchasing an additional 11,140 shares in the last quarter. Dragoneer Investment Group LLC increased its holdings in Duolingo by 324.4% during the 3rd quarter. Dragoneer Investment Group LLC now owns 1,580,787 shares of the company’s stock worth $508,760,000 after purchasing an additional 1,208,346 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Duolingo by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,164,387 shares of the company’s stock valued at $477,422,000 after buying an additional 6,109 shares during the period. 91.59% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

More Duolingo News

Here are the key news stories impacting Duolingo this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Q4 results beat estimates — revenue and EPS topped expectations and the company reported strong margin metrics. Earnings Report
• Positive Sentiment: User scale: Duolingo closed 2025 with >50M daily active users and topped $1B in bookings — evidence of continued product adoption. Shareholder Letter
• Positive Sentiment: Strong full-year profitability: reports note roughly $400M profit for 2025, underlining unit economics at scale. Profit Article
• Neutral Sentiment: Management is explicitly shifting to prioritize user growth over near-term monetization, saying bookings and revenue growth will slow as they aim for 100M DAUs by 2028. Reuters Strategy Piece
• Neutral Sentiment: Management set explicit DAU growth targets and framed short-term profitability trade-offs as part of a longer-term expansion plan. Seeking Alpha
• Negative Sentiment: Guidance disappointment: FY‑2026 and Q1 2026 revenue/bookings guidance came in below Street expectations, triggering sharp intraday selling. Guidance/Miss Report
• Negative Sentiment: Analyst downgrades and price-target cuts accelerated the sell-off (multiple firms cut targets and/or ratings after the call). Analyst Moves
• Negative Sentiment: Regulatory/litigation risk: investor law firms have launched probes into DUOL, increasing uncertainty and potential legal overhang. Investigation Alert
• Negative Sentiment: High-volume selling and negative press amplified moves — multiple outlets flagged a steep intraday decline and described investor concern over the strategy shift. Barron’s

About Duolingo

Duolingo, Inc (NASDAQ:DUOL) is a technology-driven education company that operates a widely used language-learning platform. Founded in 2011 by Luis von Ahn and Severin Hacker, Duolingo offers a freemium service featuring bite-sized lessons, gamified exercises and adaptive learning algorithms. The company’s core product is its mobile and web application, which supports instruction in more than 40 languages, ranging from widely spoken tongues such as English and Spanish to lesser-taught options including Irish and Swahili.

In addition to its flagship language courses, Duolingo has expanded its product suite to include the Duolingo English Test, an on-demand, computer-based English proficiency exam designed for academic and professional admissions.