HC Wainwright Reiterates “Buy” Rating for Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX)

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by investment analysts at HC Wainwright in a research report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $102.00 target price on the biotechnology company’s stock. HC Wainwright’s price objective points to a potential upside of 145.84% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on VKTX. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $138.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. assumed 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 for the company. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $105.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $106.75.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Up 8.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ VKTX opened at $41.49 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.62 billion, a PE ratio of -44.61 and a beta of 0.88. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $58.05 and a 200-day moving average of $57.95. Viking Therapeutics has a 52-week low of $17.23 and a 52-week high of $99.41.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The biotechnology company reported ($0.22) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.24) by $0.02. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($0.23) earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Viking Therapeutics will post -0.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Viking Therapeutics

In other news, Director Lawson Macartney sold 2,000 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Greg Zante sold 131,687 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.61, for a total value of $10,088,541.07. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 149,366 shares in the company, valued at $11,442,929.26. This trade represents a 46.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 144,687 shares of company stock valued at $11,115,671 over the last three months. 4.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Viking Therapeutics

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 16,619,430 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,052,176,000 after purchasing an additional 79,149 shares during the period. Perpetual Ltd boosted its position in Viking Therapeutics by 55.4% during the 3rd quarter. Perpetual Ltd now owns 1,269,152 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $80,350,000 after purchasing an additional 452,344 shares during the period. Braidwell LP grew its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. Braidwell LP now owns 1,156,977 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $73,248,000 after buying an additional 50,072 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in Viking Therapeutics by 10,775.6% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,004,033 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $63,565,000 after buying an additional 994,801 shares during the period. Finally, Westfield Capital Management Co. LP lifted its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 18.3% in the third quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 930,370 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $58,902,000 after buying an additional 143,675 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.03% of the company’s stock.

Viking Therapeutics Company 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.