Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL) Earns “Sector Perform” Rating from Scotiabank

Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL)‘s stock had its “sector perform” rating reaffirmed by Scotiabank in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday, MarketBeat reports. They currently have a $100.00 target price on the stock, down from their previous target price of $300.00. Scotiabank’s price objective would indicate a potential downside of 0.99% from the stock’s previous close.

DUOL has been the topic of a number of other reports. BMO Capital Markets upgraded Duolingo to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 12th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Duolingo from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $301.00 to $250.00 in a research report on Monday, January 5th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Duolingo in a research note on Monday, December 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated a “neutral” rating and set a $95.00 target price (down from $200.00) on shares of Duolingo in a report on Friday. Finally, KeyCorp downgraded shares of Duolingo from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 6th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Duolingo presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $220.26.

Duolingo Price Performance

DUOL stock opened at $101.00 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $144.48 and a 200-day moving average of $223.84. Duolingo has a 12-month low of $91.99 and a 12-month high of $544.93. The company has a current ratio of 2.82, a quick ratio of 2.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The company has a market cap 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 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.79 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $282.87 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $275.95 million. Duolingo had a return on equity of 14.02% and a net margin of 40.03%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 35.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Duolingo will post 2.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Duolingo news, insider Natalie Glance sold 3,545 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.51, for a total transaction of $402,392.95. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 115,380 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,096,783.80. This trade represents a 2.98% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Robert Meese sold 1,000 shares of Duolingo stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $110.06, for a total transaction of $110,060.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 122,636 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,497,318.16. This trade represents a 0.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 14,939 shares of company stock valued at $1,676,291 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 15.67% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Baillie Gifford & Co. lifted its position in 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 buying an additional 2,033,611 shares during the period. Dragoneer Investment Group LLC grew its holdings in Duolingo by 324.4% in the 3rd quarter. Dragoneer Investment Group LLC now owns 1,580,787 shares of the company’s stock valued at $508,760,000 after buying an additional 1,208,346 shares during the period. State of Michigan Retirement System grew its holdings in Duolingo by 5,800.0% in the 4th quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 560,500 shares of the company’s stock valued at $98,368,000 after buying an additional 551,000 shares during the period. FIL Ltd increased its stake in shares of Duolingo by 1,715,575.9% during the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 497,546 shares of the company’s stock valued at $87,319,000 after acquiring an additional 497,517 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Duolingo during the 4th quarter worth about $86,159,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 91.59% of the company’s stock.

Trending Headlines about Duolingo

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.