California Public Employees Retirement System Sells 4,208 Shares of Duolingo, Inc. $DUOL

California Public Employees Retirement System decreased its holdings in shares of Duolingo, Inc. (NASDAQ:DUOL) by 8.4% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 45,796 shares of the company’s stock after selling 4,208 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Duolingo were worth $4,514,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of DUOL. Baillie Gifford & Co. boosted its stake in shares of Duolingo by 71.9% in the 4th 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. Capital World Investors grew its holdings 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 last quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System increased its position in Duolingo by 112.9% during the 1st quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 1,193,307 shares of the company’s stock worth $117,624,000 after purchasing an additional 632,807 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its position in Duolingo by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,164,387 shares of the company’s stock worth $477,422,000 after purchasing an additional 6,109 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Whale Rock Capital Management LLC increased its position in Duolingo by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Whale Rock Capital Management LLC now owns 876,646 shares of the company’s stock worth $153,851,000 after purchasing an additional 8,477 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 91.59% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have weighed in on DUOL. Needham & Company LLC restated a “buy” rating and issued a $145.00 target price on shares of Duolingo in a research report on Tuesday, May 5th. DA Davidson reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 price target on shares of Duolingo in a report on Monday, June 29th. Jefferies Financial Group increased their price target on Duolingo from $95.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. Zacks Research raised Duolingo from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 28th. Finally, UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Duolingo in a research report on Wednesday, June 17th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twenty have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $167.17.

Duolingo Price Performance

NASDAQ:DUOL opened at $122.24 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $120.62 and its 200 day simple moving average is $116.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 2.62 and a quick ratio of 2.62. Duolingo, Inc. has a one year low of $87.89 and a one year high of $468.00. The company has a market cap of $5.70 billion, a PE ratio of 14.07, a P/E/G ratio of 0.93 and a beta of 0.88.

Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL) last posted its earnings results on Monday, May 4th. The company reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.79 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $291.97 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $288.60 million. Duolingo had a net margin of 38.44% and a return on equity of 14.07%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 26.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.72 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Duolingo, Inc. will post 2.81 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Duolingo

In related news, General Counsel Stephen C. Chen sold 1,977 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.61, for a total transaction of $224,606.97. Following the completion of the transaction, the general counsel directly owned 52,807 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,999,403.27. This trade represents a 3.61% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, insider Robert Meese sold 1,420 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $112.16, for a total value of $159,267.20. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 170,745 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $19,150,759.20. This represents a 0.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders sold 9,506 shares of company stock worth $1,073,864 over the last three months. Company insiders own 16.62% of the company’s stock.

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.