“Hey Siri, how do you say cashin’ checks and snappin’ necks in Spanish?” 

Duolingo just lit Wall Street’s hair on fire and walked away without flinching. The company dropped its Q1 earnings Thursday night and basically told every analyst who lowballed them to go choke on their estimates. The receipts were as follows: Seventy-two cents per share on $230.7 million in revenue. Analysts were expecting 51 cents and $223 million. Bigly. 

(Source: Yahoo Finance) 

Simply put, the company outperformed across the board, and the Street immediately ate their own cooking as Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan both jacked up their price targets to $515 and $500, respectively (Duolingo’s 52 week high is $487 at time of this writing). 

And it doesn’t take a genius to see why. Revenue was up 38% year-over-year, while net income catapulted 26%. Oh, and user numbers—Lord have mercay—were up 49% year-over-year with 46.6 million daily active users. For more context, that banks Duolingo with 130 million monthly users with 10.3 million pay subscribers (which in of itself is up 800,000 in a single quarter). Meaning, if you were wondering what an absolute earnings masterclass is… Duolingo just gave a full clinic on it. 

(Source: Giphy) 

The company didn’t just beat expectations, they nuked them and spit on the ashes. And instead of pulling back like a normal, risk-averse, publicly-traded company pretending to care about “macroeconomic uncertainty,” Duolingo took a crowbar to the accelerator. They launched 148 new courses. In one quarter. It took them twelve years to build the first hundred. Now they’re cranking out content faster than I put my pants on this morning. Luis von Ahn, the CEO, straight-up said it: we’re doing this with generative AI and automation, and it’s scaling like nothing we’ve ever seen.

Hell, even Duolingo’s guidance was aggressive. The company expects $240 million in Q2 revenue. Wall Street was expecting $233.8 million. Full-year guidance? $987 to $996 million. The Street had it at $976.4 million. And they’re not just pulling numbers out of their a$$. They grew from $748 million in 2024. That’s a 30%+ jump, and they’re doing it while sustaining profitability and without chasing margins off a cliff.

(Source: IBD) 

Additionally, and like mentioned earlier, Wall Street had Duolingo price targets in the 300s, and now they’re scrambling. Morgan Stanley had their price targets set at $435 before jacking up to $515. JP Morgan was insulting Duolingo with a $360 price target before raising to $500, and even Evercore had the stock at $400 before boosting it to $480. All in all, nine firms raised their price targets on a company they called a lame “language app” twelve months ago. 

Now, given all of this, you can clearly see this is not a normal company. They aren’t even behaving like a normal company simply through their profitability. The company that’s single-handedly rewiring your frontal cortex into a multilingual, music-playing, math-doing tactician machine that successfully orders croissants in Paris with a perfect accent is making real money. They’re guiding higher, not cutting corners and not laying people off. Oh, and they’re building… fast. 

(Source: Giphy) 

Which means, Duolingo is now the most dangerous consumer tech company that no one took seriously until it was too late. Investors know it. Analysts finally admitted it. And if you’re not paying attention, you’re the last person in the room who doesn’t realize the game has already changed. This is Duolingo’s market and we are all just living in it. 

Meaning, for now, keep your eyes on the stock as it’s definitely on a bender all around. Of course, do what you will with this information and place your bets accordingly. Until next time, friends…

P.S. Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know you liked getting rekt. Let’s face it, retail investors get the short end of the stick all day everyday. It’s the smart money’s world, and we are just living in it–only useful when it comes to liquidity purposes in the market. Meaning, if you’re as pissed off as I was when I found out Milli Vanilli was lip syncing the whole time, then it’s time to go from investing blind, to investing smart. Luckily for you, the key is right here as a Stocks.News premium member. Click here to see exactly how our premium members are printing while others quake in the face of today’s market chaos. 

Stocks.News does not hold positions in companies mentioned in the article.