Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Shares Up 1.3%

Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX)’s stock price shot up 1.3% on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as $64.20 and last traded at $63.75. 395,069 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 91% from the average session volume of 4,523,699 shares. The stock had previously closed at $62.94.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on VKTX. JPMorgan Chase & Co. began coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $80.00 price target for the company. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $105.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Maxim Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $120.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Tuesday, June 4th. HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $90.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Viking Therapeutics has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $108.60.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $7.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -68.55 and a beta of 1.00. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $58.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $63.65.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.20) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.26) by $0.06. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($0.19) EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Viking Therapeutics

In other Viking Therapeutics news, CEO Brian Lian sold 115,859 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.58, for a total value of $6,671,161.22. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,354,927 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $135,596,696.66. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, CEO Brian Lian sold 115,859 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.58, for a total transaction of $6,671,161.22. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,354,927 shares in the company, valued at approximately $135,596,696.66. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO Marianna Mancini sold 18,026 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.13, for a total transaction of $1,029,825.38. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 362,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,689,572.37. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 290,241 shares of company stock valued at $17,786,475 over the last 90 days. 4.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Viking Therapeutics

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of VKTX. Avoro Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Viking Therapeutics in the first quarter valued at $294,380,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 44.7% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,785,724 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $638,429,000 after purchasing an additional 2,403,820 shares during the last quarter. Perpetual Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the first quarter valued at approximately $78,586,000. Hood River Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the first quarter worth approximately $55,098,000. Finally, Westfield Capital Management Co. LP purchased a new position in Viking Therapeutics in the 1st quarter valued at $54,295,000. 76.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Viking Therapeutics

Viking Therapeutics, Inc, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development of novel therapies for metabolic and endocrine disorders. The company's lead drug candidate is VK2809, an orally available tissue and receptor-subtype selective agonist of the thyroid hormone receptor beta (TRß), which is in Phase IIb clinical trials to treat patients with biopsy-confirmed non-alcoholic steatohepatitis, as well as NAFLD.