Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL) Downgraded by Truist Financial to “Hold”

Truist Financial downgraded shares of Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report issued on Friday, MarketBeat reports. The firm currently has $100.00 price target on the stock.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. Evercore restated a “hold” rating and issued a $114.00 price target on shares of Duolingo in a research note on Friday. Barclays decreased their target price 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. Bank of America reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $100.00 price target on shares of Duolingo in a research report on Friday. KeyCorp downgraded Duolingo from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a report on Thursday, November 6th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Duolingo in a report on Monday, December 29th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seventeen have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $220.26.

Duolingo Stock Down 14.0%

Shares of DUOL traded down $16.45 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $101.00. The company had a trading volume of 20,096,588 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,830,754. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $144.48 and its 200-day simple moving average is $224.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 2.82 and a current ratio of 2.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.80, a P/E/G ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 0.86. Duolingo has a 1 year low of $91.99 and a 1 year high of $544.93.

Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL) last released 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 net margin of 40.03% and a return on equity of 14.02%. The firm had revenue of $282.87 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $275.95 million. The firm’s revenue was up 35.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Duolingo will post 2.03 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Matthew Skaruppa sold 3,986 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.52, for a total value of $452,490.72. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 31,631 shares in the company, 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Robert Meese sold 1,000 shares of Duolingo stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $110.06, for a total value of $110,060.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 122,636 shares in the company, 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 14,939 shares of company stock valued at $1,676,291. Company insiders own 15.67% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Citigroup Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Duolingo by 31.8% during the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 259,666 shares of the company’s stock worth $83,571,000 after acquiring an additional 62,614 shares in the last quarter. Bryce Point Capital LLC acquired a new position in Duolingo during the second quarter worth $946,000. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Duolingo by 3.3% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,647,951 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,495,733,000 after purchasing an additional 116,135 shares in the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Duolingo by 967.3% during the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 48,926 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,746,000 after purchasing an additional 44,342 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Los Angeles Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Duolingo in the second quarter valued at $14,377,000. 91.59% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Duolingo News Summary

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.