OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC Makes New $206,000 Investment in Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX)

OneDigital Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm purchased 3,260 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock, valued at approximately $206,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Oak Ridge Investments LLC acquired a new position in Viking Therapeutics during the third quarter worth about $837,000. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 43.5% during the 3rd quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 102,324 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $6,478,000 after acquiring an additional 31,011 shares in the last quarter. Nvwm LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $999,000. Chartwell Investment Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 88.0% in the 3rd quarter. Chartwell Investment Partners LLC now owns 36,666 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $2,322,000 after acquiring an additional 17,159 shares during the period. Finally, Aptus Capital Advisors LLC increased its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 34.1% in the 3rd quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 38,143 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $2,415,000 after purchasing an additional 9,699 shares in the last quarter. 76.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have weighed in on VKTX. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $105.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Thursday, September 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. started coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $80.00 price objective on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $138.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $109.73.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Lawson Macartney sold 2,000 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.67, for a total value of $137,340.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 47,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,293,756.55. This trade represents a 4.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director J Matthew Singleton sold 10,300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.50, for a total value of $715,850.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 9,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $660,250. This represents a 52.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 371,117 shares of company stock valued at $27,140,009 in the last 90 days. 4.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of VKTX opened at $52.59 on Friday. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $11.55 and a fifty-two week high of $99.41. The company has a market capitalization of $5.86 billion, a PE ratio of -56.55 and a beta of 1.00. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $63.73 and a two-hundred day moving average of $60.38.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The biotechnology company reported ($0.22) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.24) by $0.02. During the same period last year, the business earned ($0.23) earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -0.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Viking Therapeutics Profile

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.