Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Given “Buy” Rating at HC Wainwright

HC Wainwright restated their buy rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. HC Wainwright currently has a $102.00 price target on the biotechnology company’s stock.

VKTX has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $105.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. StockNews.com raised shares of Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $138.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, B. Riley assumed coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $109.00 price target on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $109.73.

Viking Therapeutics Price Performance

Viking Therapeutics stock opened at $53.42 on Tuesday. Viking Therapeutics has a 12 month low of $11.55 and a 12 month high of $99.41. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $63.43 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $60.05. The company has a market cap of $5.95 billion, a PE ratio of -57.44 and a beta of 1.00.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The biotechnology company reported ($0.22) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.24) by $0.02. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($0.23) EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that Viking Therapeutics will post -0.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Greg Zante sold 131,687 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 149,366 shares in the company, valued at $11,442,929.26. This trade represents a 46.85 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Brian Lian sold 216,130 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction that occurred 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 approximately $163,257,979.41. This trade represents a 8.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 371,117 shares of company stock worth $27,140,009. 4.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Viking Therapeutics

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Viking Therapeutics during the first quarter valued at $327,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in Viking Therapeutics by 11.2% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 61,417 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $5,037,000 after purchasing an additional 6,181 shares during the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado bought a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the 1st quarter worth about $802,000. Tidal Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the 1st quarter worth approximately $2,373,000. Finally, Comerica Bank boosted its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 28,154.0% during the first quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 91,543 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $7,507,000 after buying an additional 91,219 shares in the last quarter. 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.