Evercore Reiterates Hold Rating for Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL)

Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL)‘s stock had its “hold” rating reaffirmed by analysts at Evercore in a research note issued on Friday, Marketbeat.com reports. They presently have a $114.00 price objective on the stock. Evercore’s price objective points to a potential upside of 12.87% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research analysts have also issued reports on DUOL. Citigroup reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Duolingo in a research note on Monday, January 12th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price objective on Duolingo from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 11th. Truist Financial set a $245.00 target price on Duolingo in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. Barclays reduced their price target on Duolingo from $390.00 to $230.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Duolingo in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $220.26.

Duolingo Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ DUOL opened at $101.00 on Friday. 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 PE ratio of 11.85, a P/E/G ratio of 0.54 and a beta of 0.86. Duolingo has a 1-year low of $91.99 and a 1-year high of $544.93. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $144.48 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $223.84.

Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL) last released 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. Duolingo had a net margin of 40.03% and a return on equity of 14.02%. The business had revenue of $282.87 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $275.95 million. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 35.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Duolingo will post 2.03 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Duolingo

In related news, CFO Matthew Skaruppa sold 3,986 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.52, for a total transaction of $452,490.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 31,631 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,590,751.12. This trade represents a 11.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 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 value of $110,060.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 122,636 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,497,318.16. The trade was a 0.81% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 14,939 shares of company stock valued at $1,676,291 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 15.67% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Duolingo

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Baillie Gifford & Co. grew its position in Duolingo by 71.9% in 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 last quarter. Dragoneer Investment Group LLC boosted its stake 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 worth $508,760,000 after acquiring an additional 1,208,346 shares in the last quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System grew its holdings in shares of Duolingo by 5,800.0% in the 4th quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 560,500 shares of the company’s stock worth $98,368,000 after acquiring an additional 551,000 shares during the last quarter. FIL Ltd raised its position in shares of Duolingo by 1,715,575.9% during the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 497,546 shares of the company’s stock worth $87,319,000 after purchasing an additional 497,517 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Duolingo during the fourth quarter valued at $86,159,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.