Workiva (NYSE:WK) vs. Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL) Critical Contrast

Workiva (NYSE:WK) and Duolingo (NASDAQ:DUOL) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, institutional ownership, valuation, profitability, earnings, risk and analyst recommendations.

Valuation & Earnings

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

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Workiva	$705.44 million	8.60	-$127.53 million	($0.92)	-119.02
Duolingo	$689.46 million	20.68	$16.07 million	$1.83	177.17

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

Institutional & Insider Ownership

92.2% of Workiva shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 91.6% of Duolingo shares are owned by institutional investors. 3.9% of Workiva shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 18.3% of Duolingo shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Workiva	-7.15%	N/A	-3.58%
Duolingo	12.59%	11.74%	7.92%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Workiva and Duolingo, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Workiva	0	0	6	0	3.00
Duolingo	0	6	6	1	2.62

Workiva presently has a consensus price target of $117.40, indicating a potential upside of 7.21%. Duolingo has a consensus price target of $353.90, indicating a potential upside of 9.15%. Given Duolingo’s higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Duolingo is more favorable than Workiva.

Volatility and Risk

Workiva has a beta of 1.09, meaning that its share price is 9% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Duolingo has a beta of 0.85, meaning that its share price is 15% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Duolingo beats Workiva on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Workiva

Workiva Inc., together with its subsidiaries, provides cloud-based reporting solutions in the United States and internationally. The company offers Workiva platform, a multi-tenant cloud software that provides data linking capabilities; audit trail services; administrators access management; and allows customers to connect data from multiple enterprise resource planning, human capital management, and customer relationship management systems, as well as other third-party cloud and on-premise applications. It serves public and private companies, government agencies, and higher-education institutions. Workiva Inc. was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Ames, Iowa.

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.