Maxim Group Cuts Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Price Target to $70.00

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) had its price objective cut by Maxim Group from $120.00 to $70.00 in a report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a buy rating on the biotechnology company’s stock.

VKTX has been the subject of several other research reports. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Raymond James upped their target price on Viking Therapeutics from $122.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Friday. They set a “neutral” rating and a $38.00 price target for the company. StockNews.com raised Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, B. Riley reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $96.00 price target (down from $109.00) on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $96.92.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of VKTX opened at $32.56 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $3.63 billion, a PE ratio of -32.56 and a beta of 0.90. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $40.05 and its 200 day moving average price is $53.92. Viking Therapeutics has a twelve month low of $25.34 and a twelve month high of $99.41.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.32) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.27) by ($0.05). During the same quarter last year, the company posted ($0.25) EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Viking Therapeutics will post -1.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Viking Therapeutics

In related news, CFO Greg Zante sold 50,309 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.75, for a total value of $2,150,709.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 165,259 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,064,822.25. The trade was a 23.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Marianna Mancini sold 54,215 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.75, for a total transaction of $2,317,691.25. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 374,134 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,994,228.50. This trade represents a 12.66 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 299,014 shares of company stock worth $12,782,849 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Viking Therapeutics

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Creative Planning increased its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 3.4% in the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 15,753 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $835,000 after buying an additional 524 shares during the period. Truist Financial Corp increased its position in Viking Therapeutics by 357.1% in the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 26,049 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,381,000 after purchasing an additional 20,350 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 114.0% during the 2nd quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 49,311 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $2,614,000 after purchasing an additional 26,270 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Viking Therapeutics during the 2nd quarter valued at about $190,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 124.6% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 438 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 243 shares during the last quarter. 76.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.