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

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by equities research analysts at HC Wainwright in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $90.00 price objective on the biotechnology company’s stock. HC Wainwright’s price objective points to a potential upside of 39.58% from the company’s previous close.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Raymond James increased their price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $116.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. initiated coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $80.00 target price for the company. Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Monday, June 17th. StockNews.com raised Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $138.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $108.60.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Down 3.3 %

Viking Therapeutics stock traded down $2.20 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $64.48. The stock had a trading volume of 685,818 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,391,479. The company has a 50-day moving average of $60.95 and a two-hundred day moving average of $62.64. The company has a market cap of $7.11 billion, a PE ratio of -69.33 and a beta of 1.00. Viking Therapeutics has a fifty-two week low of $8.28 and a fifty-two week high of $99.41.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.20) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.26) by $0.06. During the same period last year, the firm earned ($0.19) EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Viking Therapeutics will post -1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Brian Lian sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.90, for a total transaction of $69,900.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,354,927 shares in the company, valued at approximately $164,609,397.30. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other Viking Therapeutics news, CEO Brian Lian sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.90, for a total transaction of $69,900.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,354,927 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $164,609,397.30. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO Marianna Mancini sold 18,026 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.13, for a total transaction of $1,029,825.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 362,149 shares in the company, valued at $20,689,572.37. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 516,671 shares of company stock valued at $33,810,813 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Viking Therapeutics

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of VKTX. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV purchased a new stake in Viking Therapeutics during the first quarter worth about $25,000. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the 2nd quarter valued at about $27,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 124.6% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 438 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 243 shares during the last quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 140.8% in the second quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 802 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 469 shares during the period. Finally, Quest Partners LLC raised its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 123.8% during the 2nd quarter. Quest Partners LLC now owns 1,258 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $67,000 after acquiring an additional 696 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.