Truist Financial Corp Has $356,000 Stake in Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX)

Truist Financial Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) by 27.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 8,840 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after buying an additional 1,912 shares during the quarter. Truist Financial Corp’s holdings in Viking Therapeutics were worth $356,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 16,619,430 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,052,176,000 after buying an additional 79,149 shares during the period. Braidwell LP grew its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. Braidwell LP now owns 1,156,977 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $73,248,000 after buying an additional 50,072 shares during the period. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP grew its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 18.3% during the 3rd quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 930,370 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $58,902,000 after buying an additional 143,675 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 6.6% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 715,597 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $45,304,000 after buying an additional 44,122 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 5.9% during the 4th quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 628,764 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $25,301,000 after buying an additional 35,236 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Viking Therapeutics

In other Viking Therapeutics news, CFO Greg Zante sold 50,309 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The shares were 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 represents a 23.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Marianna Mancini sold 54,215 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.75, for a total transaction of $2,317,691.25. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 374,134 shares in the company, valued at $15,994,228.50. This trade represents a 12.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 299,014 shares of company stock valued at $12,782,849 over the last 90 days. 4.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Scotiabank assumed coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $102.00 price target for the company. Maxim Group decreased their price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $120.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. B. Riley restated a “buy” rating and set a $96.00 price objective (down previously from $109.00) on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Friday, February 7th. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, Citigroup assumed coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Friday, February 7th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $38.00 price objective for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Viking Therapeutics presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $97.29.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of VKTX opened at $28.09 on Wednesday. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $24.41 and a twelve month high of $96.74. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $34.48 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $50.85. The firm has a market cap of $3.15 billion, a P/E ratio of -28.09 and a beta of 0.90.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.32) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.27) by ($0.05). During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.25) EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -1.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Viking Therapeutics

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.