Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Sells 262 Shares of Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX)

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP cut its stake in Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) by 0.6% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 46,890 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after selling 262 shares during the quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP’s holdings in Viking Therapeutics were worth $2,486,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in VKTX. Virtu Financial LLC grew its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 15.1% during the 4th quarter. Virtu Financial LLC now owns 29,394 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $547,000 after buying an additional 3,866 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in Viking Therapeutics by 88.3% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,119,885 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $20,841,000 after buying an additional 525,296 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Viking Therapeutics by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,381,904 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $100,157,000 after buying an additional 97,552 shares in the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Viking Therapeutics during the 1st quarter valued at about $976,000. Finally, Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV acquired a new position in Viking Therapeutics during the 1st quarter valued at about $25,000. 76.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VKTX has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $138.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Raymond James increased their price objective on Viking Therapeutics from $116.00 to $118.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. started coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $80.00 price objective on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and issued a $90.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $108.60.

Viking Therapeutics Price Performance

Shares of Viking Therapeutics stock opened at $65.84 on Friday. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. has a 12 month low of $8.28 and a 12 month high of $99.41. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.30 billion, a P/E ratio of -70.04 and a beta of 1.00. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $61.47 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $62.62.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Brian Lian sold 216,130 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.83, for a total transaction of $15,308,487.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,304,927 shares in the company, valued at $163,257,979.41. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, 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 value 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 approximately $20,689,572.37. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Brian Lian sold 216,130 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.83, for a total value of $15,308,487.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,304,927 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $163,257,979.41. This trade 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 over the last quarter. 4.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.