Rakuten Securities Inc. Acquires New Shares in Duolingo, Inc. (NASDAQ:DUOL)

Rakuten Securities Inc. bought a new position in Duolingo, Inc. (NASDAQ:DUOL) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 13,606 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,087,000. Duolingo comprises about 2.4% of Rakuten Securities Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 7th biggest holding.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FSC Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Duolingo in the 4th quarter worth about $39,000. Bamco Inc. NY bought a new position in Duolingo in the 3rd quarter worth about $39,000. Captrust Financial Advisors increased its stake in Duolingo by 620.8% in the 1st quarter. Captrust Financial Advisors now owns 555 shares of the company’s stock worth $53,000 after acquiring an additional 478 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC bought a new position in Duolingo in the 4th quarter worth about $58,000. Finally, Joel Isaacson & Co. LLC bought a new position in Duolingo in the 4th quarter worth about $201,000. 91.59% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Duolingo news, CEO Ahn Luis Von sold 22,023 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $220.26, for a total value of $4,850,785.98. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CFO Matthew Skaruppa sold 8,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $178.67, for a total value of $1,429,360.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 69,688 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,451,154.96. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Ahn Luis Von sold 22,023 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $220.26, for a total value of $4,850,785.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 113,223 shares of company stock worth $23,682,665. 19.85% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Barclays upped their target price on Duolingo from $173.00 to $243.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Duolingo from $230.00 to $275.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Duolingo from $217.00 to $282.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Bank of America upped their price objective on Duolingo from $230.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on Duolingo from $160.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $245.13.

Duolingo Trading Down 1.4 %

NASDAQ DUOL traded down $2.69 on Wednesday, hitting $195.48. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 111,833 shares, compared to its average volume of 625,341. Duolingo, Inc. has a 52-week low of $116.82 and a 52-week high of $245.87. The company has a current ratio of 3.24, a quick ratio of 3.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $209.09 and its 200 day simple moving average is $201.00. The firm has a market cap of $8.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 582.87 and a beta of 0.83.

Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 28th. The company reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.21 by $0.05. Duolingo had a return on equity of 2.64% and a net margin of 3.03%. The business had revenue of $150.99 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $146.98 million. Research analysts predict that Duolingo, Inc. will post 1.38 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Duolingo

Duolingo, Inc operates as a mobile learning platform in the United States, the United Kingdom, and internationally. The company offers courses in 40 different languages, including Spanish, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, and Chinese through its Duolingo app. It also provides a digital English language proficiency assessment exam.