Reviewing Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL) and Loop Industries (NASDAQ:LOOP)

Loop Industries (NASDAQ:LOOP) and Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL) are both business services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, earnings and valuation.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

4.9% of Loop Industries shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.6% of Duolingo shares are held by institutional investors. 45.9% of Loop Industries shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 15.7% of Duolingo shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Loop Industries and Duolingo’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Loop Industries	-120.79%	N/A	-18.36%
Duolingo	40.03%	14.02%	9.15%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and recommmendations for Loop Industries and Duolingo, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Loop Industries	0	0	0	0	0.00
Duolingo	1	11	12	0	2.46

Duolingo has a consensus target price of $300.25, suggesting a potential upside of 167.96%. Given Duolingo’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Duolingo is more favorable than Loop Industries.

Risk & Volatility

Loop Industries has a beta of 1.68, meaning that its stock price is 68% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Duolingo has a beta of 0.86, meaning that its stock price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Loop Industries and Duolingo”s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Loop Industries	$10.89 million	5.68	-$15.06 million	($0.06)	-21.33
Duolingo	$748.02 million	6.93	$88.57 million	$7.89	14.20

Duolingo has higher revenue and earnings than Loop Industries. Loop Industries is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Duolingo, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Duolingo beats Loop Industries on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Loop Industries

Loop Industries, Inc., a technology company, focuses on depolymerizing waste polyethylene terephthalate PET plastics and polyester fibers, including plastic bottles, packaging, carpets and textiles of any color, transparency and even ocean plastics that have been degraded by the sun and salt, to its base building blocks. Its polymerized monomers into virgin-quality PET resins for use in food-grade plastic packaging, such as plastic bottles for water and carbonated soft drinks, and containers for food and other consumer products; and polyester fibers, including textiles, clothing, and apparel. The company was incorporated in 2010 and is based in Terrebonne, Canada.

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. Duolingo, Inc. was incorporated in 2011 and is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.