** Jefferies maintains "Underperform" rating for international education services provider IDP Education IEL.AX, at price target of A$9.50/shr

** Brokerage points to 13% YOY decrease in February traffic to English-language testing websites including IELTS, PTE, TOEFL, Duolingo DUOL.O and CAEL

** Says data indicates downloads of IDP Education's "IELTS by IDP" and "IDP Live" continue to decline on YOY basis, but the rate of decline has slowed, especially for "IELTS by IDP" in February

** Brokerage suggests while the slower rate of decline for "IELTS by IDP" is encouraging, a significant recovery would require a reversal of the current downward trend

** 7 of 12 analysts rate the stock "buy", 4 as "hold" and 1 as "strong sell"; their mean PT is A$14.29 – LSEG data

** Stock down 18.1% YTD

(Reporting by Kumar Tanishk in Bengaluru)

((Tanishk.Kumar@thomsonreuters.com; X: @thatstanishk;))