Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Upgraded at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) to a sell rating in a research report released on Tuesday.

VKTX has been the subject of several other reports. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $138.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $120.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $105.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Raymond James upped their target price on Viking Therapeutics from $116.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. initiated coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $80.00 price target for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $108.60.

Viking Therapeutics Trading Down 1.9 %

Shares of VKTX opened at $64.62 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $62.47 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $62.16. Viking Therapeutics has a 12 month low of $8.28 and a 12 month high of $99.41. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.12 billion, a P/E ratio of -69.48 and a beta of 1.00.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last announced its 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 in the prior year, the business posted ($0.19) EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Viking Therapeutics will post -1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Viking Therapeutics

In other Viking Therapeutics news, CEO Brian Lian sold 115,859 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.58, for a total value of $6,671,161.22. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,354,927 shares in the company, valued at approximately $135,596,696.66. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Viking Therapeutics news, CEO Brian Lian sold 115,859 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.58, for a total value of $6,671,161.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,354,927 shares in the company, valued at $135,596,696.66. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Marianna Mancini sold 18,026 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.13, for a total transaction of $1,029,825.38. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 362,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,689,572.37. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 516,671 shares of company stock worth $33,810,813. Corporate insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 44.7% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,785,724 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $638,429,000 after acquiring an additional 2,403,820 shares during the period. Avoro Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Viking Therapeutics in the 1st quarter worth approximately $294,380,000. Perpetual Ltd boosted its holdings in 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 during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 88.3% in 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 purchasing an additional 525,296 shares during the period. Finally, Hood River Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 6.3% in the second quarter. Hood River Capital Management LLC now owns 714,578 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $37,880,000 after purchasing an additional 42,650 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.