Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Earns Buy Rating from HC Wainwright

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reiterated by investment analysts at HC Wainwright in a research note issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $102.00 target price on the biotechnology company’s stock. HC Wainwright’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 290.36% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on VKTX. Maxim Group decreased their price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $120.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Scotiabank started coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $102.00 price objective on the stock. Raymond James boosted their target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $122.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Piper Sandler decreased their price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $74.00 to $71.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Citigroup started coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Friday, February 7th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $38.00 price objective for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $95.18.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ:VKTX opened at $26.13 on Wednesday. Viking Therapeutics has a 52-week low of $24.41 and a 52-week high of $84.70. The stock has a market cap of $2.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -26.13 and a beta of 0.90. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $30.43 and a 200-day moving average price of $46.85.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.32) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.27) by ($0.05). During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.25) earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Viking Therapeutics will post -1.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Viking Therapeutics

In related news, CEO Brian Lian sold 194,490 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.75, for a total value of $8,314,447.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,366,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $101,170,867.50. This represents a 7.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Greg Zante sold 50,309 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 $2,150,709.75. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 165,259 shares in the company, valued at $7,064,822.25. This represents a 23.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 299,014 shares of company stock valued at $12,782,849. Corporate insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Viking Therapeutics

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. PKO Investment Management Joint Stock Co bought a new position in Viking Therapeutics in the fourth quarter worth approximately $604,000. Lighthouse Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the fourth quarter worth $563,000. United Advisor Group LLC purchased a new stake in Viking Therapeutics in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $234,000. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio increased its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 5.1% in the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 47,547 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,913,000 after acquiring an additional 2,295 shares during the period. Finally, Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the fourth quarter worth about $170,000. Institutional investors own 76.03% of the company’s stock.

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.