Short Interest in Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) Increases By 27.9%

Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) was the target of a large growth in short interest in November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 16,990,000 shares, a growth of 27.9% from the October 31st total of 13,280,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 4,160,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.1 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VKTX has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $138.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. StockNews.com upgraded Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and set a $102.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $105.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. initiated coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $80.00 price target on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $109.73.

Insider Activity at Viking Therapeutics

In other Viking Therapeutics news, Director J Matthew Singleton sold 10,300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.50, for a total transaction of $715,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 9,500 shares in the company, valued at approximately $660,250. The trade was a 52.02 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Sarah Kathryn Rouan sold 11,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.89, for a total transaction of $889,790.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 9,500 shares in the company, valued at approximately $768,455. The trade was a 53.66 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 371,117 shares of company stock valued at $27,140,009 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Blue Trust Inc. bought a new stake in Viking Therapeutics in the 3rd quarter valued at about $26,000. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the second quarter valued at approximately $27,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 124.6% during the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 438 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 243 shares in the last quarter. Gilliland Jeter Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, Stone House Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 66.7% in the 3rd quarter. Stone House Investment Management LLC now owns 500 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 76.03% of the company’s stock.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of VKTX stock opened at $52.94 on Monday. Viking Therapeutics has a 52 week low of $11.82 and a 52 week high of $99.41. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $62.42 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $59.61. The firm has a market cap of $5.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -56.92 and a beta of 1.00.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 in the previous year, the company posted ($0.23) earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Viking Therapeutics will post -0.98 earnings per share for the current year.

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.