Vontobel Holding Ltd. Purchases 915 Shares of Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX)

Vontobel Holding Ltd. increased its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) by 17.8% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 6,059 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 915 shares during the period. Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s holdings in Viking Therapeutics were worth $384,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC increased its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 8.8% during the third quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC now owns 7,190 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $455,000 after purchasing an additional 581 shares during the period. Creative Planning grew its position in Viking Therapeutics by 7.6% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 16,955 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $1,074,000 after acquiring an additional 1,202 shares during the period. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC grew its position in Viking Therapeutics by 320.3% in the third quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 69,503 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $4,400,000 after acquiring an additional 52,968 shares during the period. Sanders Morris Harris LLC bought a new stake in Viking Therapeutics in the third quarter valued at $317,000. Finally, Perpetual Ltd grew its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 55.4% during the third quarter. Perpetual Ltd now owns 1,269,152 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $80,350,000 after purchasing an additional 452,344 shares during the last quarter. 76.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on VKTX. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and set a $90.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $138.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. began coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $80.00 target price on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $105.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Thursday, September 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $108.60.

Viking Therapeutics Trading Down 3.6 %

NASDAQ:VKTX opened at $62.03 on Wednesday. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $8.28 and a 1-year high of $99.41. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $62.76 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $61.77. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -66.70 and a beta of 1.00.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.20) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.26) by $0.06. During the same period last year, the business posted ($0.19) earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -1 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Viking Therapeutics

In other news, COO Marianna Mancini sold 18,026 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.13, for a total transaction of $1,029,825.38. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 362,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,689,572.37. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, COO Marianna Mancini sold 18,026 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.13, for a total transaction of $1,029,825.38. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 362,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $20,689,572.37. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Brian Lian sold 216,130 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.83, for a total value of $15,308,487.90. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,304,927 shares in the company, valued at approximately $163,257,979.41. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 516,671 shares of company stock valued at $33,810,813 over the last 90 days. 4.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.