DA Davidson Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL) Stock Price

Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL) had its target price decreased by investment analysts at DA Davidson from $170.00 to $85.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “neutral” rating on the stock. DA Davidson’s target price would suggest a potential downside of 15.84% from the company’s current price.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on DUOL. Morgan Stanley reissued an “equal weight” rating and set a $100.00 price objective (down from $245.00) on shares of Duolingo in a report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $95.00 target price (down from $200.00) on shares of Duolingo in a report on Friday. Needham & Company LLC cut their target price on shares of Duolingo from $300.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. KeyCorp cut Duolingo from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 6th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on Duolingo from $210.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 11th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seventeen have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $220.26.

Duolingo Trading Down 14.0%

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. Duolingo has a 1 year low of $91.99 and a 1 year high of $544.93. The company has a market cap of $4.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.85, a PEG ratio of 0.54 and a beta of 0.86. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $144.48 and its 200-day moving average price is $223.84.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Duolingo

In other news, insider Robert Meese sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $110.06, for a total transaction of $110,060.00. Following the completion of the sale, 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. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, General Counsel Stephen C. Chen sold 1,901 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.26, for a total value of $215,307.26. Following the completion of the sale, the general counsel owned 30,545 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,459,526.70. This trade represents a 5.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 14,939 shares of company stock worth $1,676,291. 15.67% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Baillie Gifford & Co. lifted its holdings in Duolingo by 71.9% during the fourth quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 4,861,445 shares of the company’s stock valued at $853,184,000 after purchasing an additional 2,033,611 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised 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 period. Capital World Investors raised 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 period. Dragoneer Investment Group LLC lifted 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 valued at $508,760,000 after buying an additional 1,208,346 shares in the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of Duolingo by 0.5% during 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 in the last quarter. 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

Duolingo Company Profile

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.