Needham & Company LLC Cuts Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL) Price Target to $145.00

Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL) had its target price decreased by Needham & Company LLC from $300.00 to $145.00 in a research note published on Friday,Benzinga reports. Needham & Company LLC currently has a buy rating on the stock.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Truist Financial set a $245.00 target price on Duolingo in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. Evercore set a $330.00 price objective on Duolingo and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Duolingo from $300.00 to $200.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. DA Davidson cut their target price on Duolingo from $205.00 to $170.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 27th. Finally, Scotiabank lowered their price target on shares of Duolingo from $600.00 to $300.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 6th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seventeen have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Duolingo has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $220.26.

Duolingo Stock Performance

Duolingo stock opened at $101.00 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 2.61 and a quick ratio of 2.82. Duolingo has a 12 month low of $91.99 and a 12 month high of $544.93. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $144.48 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $223.10. The company has a market cap of $4.67 billion, a PE ratio of 11.85, a P/E/G ratio of 0.54 and a beta of 0.90.

Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.12. Duolingo had a net margin of 39.91% and a return on equity of 14.88%. The company had revenue of $282.87 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $275.95 million. Duolingo’s revenue was up 35.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Duolingo will post 2.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Duolingo

In related news, CFO Matthew Skaruppa sold 3,986 shares of the company’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 of the company’s stock, valued at $3,590,751.12. This represents a 11.19% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Natalie Glance sold 3,545 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.51, for a total transaction of $402,392.95. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 115,380 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,096,783.80. The trade was a 2.98% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 14,939 shares of company stock valued at $1,676,291 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 18.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in DUOL. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Duolingo in the fourth quarter worth approximately $4,282,000. Alpine Woods Capital Investors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Duolingo in the 4th quarter worth $333,000. Vident Advisory LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Duolingo by 5.8% in the fourth quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 2,647 shares of the company’s stock valued at $465,000 after buying an additional 145 shares during the period. Cim LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Duolingo by 6.0% in the fourth quarter. Cim LLC now owns 4,390 shares of the company’s stock valued at $770,000 after buying an additional 248 shares during the period. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC bought a new position in Duolingo during the fourth quarter valued at about $331,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.59% of the company’s stock.

More Duolingo News

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.