JPMorgan Chase & Co. Reaffirms Neutral Rating for Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL)

Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating reiterated by equities researchers at JPMorgan Chase & Co. in a note issued to investors on Friday, Marketbeat reports. They presently have a $95.00 price target on the stock, down from their prior price target of $200.00. JPMorgan Chase & Co.‘s price objective indicates a potential downside of 5.94% from the company’s previous close.

Several other brokerages have also recently weighed in on DUOL. Truist Financial set a $245.00 price objective on Duolingo in a report on Thursday, January 15th. Evercore set a $330.00 price target on shares of Duolingo and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. Scotiabank reduced their price target on Duolingo from $600.00 to $300.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, November 6th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on Duolingo from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Duolingo to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 12th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $220.26.

Duolingo Trading Down 14.0%

Shares of Duolingo stock opened at $101.00 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $4.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.85, a P/E/G ratio of 0.54 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 2.82 and a quick ratio of 2.82. Duolingo has a 1 year low of $91.99 and a 1 year high of $544.93. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $144.48 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $223.84.

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

Insider Transactions at Duolingo

In other news, General Counsel Stephen C. Chen sold 1,901 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was 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 owned 30,545 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,459,526.70. This represents a 5.86% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 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 completion of the transaction, the insider owned 122,636 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,497,318.16. The trade was a 0.81% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold a total of 14,939 shares of company stock valued at $1,676,291 in the last three months. 15.67% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Duolingo

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Baillie Gifford & Co. increased its stake in Duolingo by 71.9% in the fourth quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 4,861,445 shares of the company’s stock valued at $853,184,000 after acquiring an additional 2,033,611 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Duolingo by 3.3% during the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,647,951 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,495,733,000 after purchasing an additional 116,135 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its position in shares of Duolingo by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 2,241,378 shares of the company’s stock valued at $393,362,000 after purchasing an additional 11,140 shares during the last quarter. Dragoneer Investment Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Duolingo by 324.4% during 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 in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its position in Duolingo by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,164,387 shares of the company’s stock worth $477,422,000 after buying an additional 6,109 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 91.59% of the company’s stock.

Duolingo News Roundup

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.