William Blair Reaffirms Outperform Rating for Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX)

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating restated by investment analysts at William Blair in a note issued to investors on Wednesday,RTT News reports.

A number of other analysts have also issued reports on the company. Raymond James boosted their price target on Viking Therapeutics from $116.00 to $118.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. StockNews.com raised Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $105.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Thursday, September 12th. HC Wainwright increased their target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $90.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $138.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. One 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 company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $109.80.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VKTX opened at $51.75 on Wednesday. Viking Therapeutics has a fifty-two week low of $11.21 and a fifty-two week high of $99.41. The company has a market cap of $5.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -55.64 and a beta of 1.00. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $64.01 and its 200-day moving average price is $60.70.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The biotechnology company reported ($0.22) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.24) by $0.02. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned ($0.23) EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Viking Therapeutics will post -0.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Greg Zante sold 131,687 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 149,366 shares in the company, valued at $11,442,929.26. This represents a 46.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Lawson Macartney sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.67, for a total value of $137,340.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 47,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,293,756.55. This trade represents a 4.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 371,117 shares of company stock valued at $27,140,009. 4.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Viking Therapeutics

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Second Line Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 34.1% during the 3rd quarter. Second Line Capital LLC now owns 38,118 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $2,413,000 after acquiring an additional 9,699 shares in the last quarter. Vestcor Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the third quarter valued at approximately $741,000. M&T Bank Corp acquired a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $354,000. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio lifted its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 12.9% during the 3rd quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 45,252 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $2,865,000 after buying an additional 5,155 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MML Investors Services LLC grew its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 193.1% in the 3rd quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 20,352 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $1,288,000 after acquiring an additional 13,409 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other 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.