HC Wainwright Reiterates Buy Rating for Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX)

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reissued by research analysts at HC Wainwright in a research note issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $102.00 target price on the biotechnology company’s stock. HC Wainwright’s target price suggests a potential upside of 213.27% from the company’s current price.

Other research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. B. Riley began coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $109.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on Viking Therapeutics from $74.00 to $71.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $96.92.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of VKTX opened at $32.56 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.63 billion, a PE ratio of -35.01 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $40.05 and a 200-day moving average price of $53.88. Viking Therapeutics has a fifty-two week low of $25.34 and a fifty-two week high of $99.41.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.32) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.27) by ($0.05). During the same quarter last year, the company earned ($0.25) earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Viking Therapeutics will post -0.97 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Viking Therapeutics

In other Viking Therapeutics news, CFO Greg Zante sold 50,309 shares of the 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 165,259 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,064,822.25. This trade represents a 23.34 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Brian Lian sold 194,490 shares of the business’s 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 approximately $101,170,867.50. This trade represents a 7.59 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 299,014 shares of company stock worth $12,782,849 over the last three months. 4.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Viking Therapeutics

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. FMR LLC increased its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 0.5% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 16,619,430 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $1,052,176,000 after buying an additional 79,149 shares in the last quarter. Perpetual Ltd increased its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 55.4% in the 3rd quarter. Perpetual Ltd now owns 1,269,152 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $80,350,000 after purchasing an additional 452,344 shares in the last quarter. Braidwell LP increased its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. Braidwell LP now owns 1,156,977 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $73,248,000 after purchasing an additional 50,072 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 10,775.6% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,004,033 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $63,565,000 after purchasing an additional 994,801 shares during the period. Finally, Westfield Capital Management Co. LP boosted its position in Viking Therapeutics by 18.3% during the third quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 930,370 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $58,902,000 after purchasing an additional 143,675 shares in the last quarter. 76.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.