Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL – Get Free Report) and Acuity (NYSE:AYI – Get Free Report) are both mid-cap business services companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk, valuation, earnings and profitability.
Analyst Ratings
This is a breakdown of recent ratings and recommmendations for Duolingo and Acuity, as provided by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Duolingo | 2 | 17 | 3 | 0 | 2.05 |
| Acuity | 0 | 4 | 5 | 0 | 2.56 |
Duolingo presently has a consensus price target of $197.61, suggesting a potential upside of 55.53%. Acuity has a consensus price target of $369.17, suggesting a potential upside of 21.83%. Given Duolingo’s higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe Duolingo is more favorable than Acuity.
Risk & Volatility
Insider and Institutional Ownership
91.6% of Duolingo shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 98.2% of Acuity shares are held by institutional investors. 16.6% of Duolingo shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 2.9% of Acuity shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Earnings & Valuation
This table compares Duolingo and Acuity”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Duolingo | $1.04 billion | 5.71 | $414.07 million | $8.69 | 14.62 |
| Acuity | $4.35 billion | 2.11 | $396.60 million | $13.64 | 22.22 |
Duolingo has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Acuity. Duolingo is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Acuity, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Profitability
This table compares Duolingo and Acuity’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Duolingo | 38.44% | 14.07% | 9.45% |
| Acuity | 9.37% | 20.74% | 12.20% |
Summary
Acuity beats Duolingo on 9 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.
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.
About Acuity
Acuity Brands, Inc. provides lighting, lighting controls, building management system, location-aware applications in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Acuity Brands Lighting and Lighting Controls (ABL); and the Intelligent Spaces Group (ISG). The ABL segment provides commercial, architectural, and specialty lighting solutions, as well as lighting controls and components for various indoor and outdoor applications under the A-Light, Aculux, American Electric Lighting, Cyclone, Dark to Light, eldoLED, Eureka, Gotham, Healthcare Lighting, Holophane, Hydrel, Indy, IOTA, Juno, Lithonia Lighting, Luminaire LED, Luminis, Mark Architectural Lighting, nLight, OPTOTRONIC, Peerless, RELOCWiring Solutions, and Sensor Switch. This segment serves electrical distributors, retail home improvement centers, electric utilities, national accounts, original equipment manufacturers, digital retailers, lighting showrooms, and energy service companies. The ISG segment offers building management solutions, such as products for controlling heating, ventilation, air conditioning, lighting, shades, refrigeration, and building access that deliver end-to-end optimization of those building systems; and building management software that enhances building system management and automates labor intensive tasks. This segment serves system integrators, as well as retail stores, airports, and enterprise campuses. The company offers its products and solutions under the Atrius, Distech Controls, and KE2 Therm Solutions brands. Acuity Brands, Inc. was incorporated in 2001 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
Receive News & Ratings for Duolingo Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Duolingo and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.
