Alliancebernstein L.P. Grows Position in Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX)

Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its position in Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) by 7.9% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,115,068 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 81,183 shares during the quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P.’s holdings in Viking Therapeutics were worth $44,870,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 75.9% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 716 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 309 shares during the period. YANKCOM Partnership acquired a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the fourth quarter worth about $33,000. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 170.2% during the fourth quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 1,351 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $55,000 after buying an additional 851 shares during the last quarter. S.A. Mason LLC increased its position in Viking Therapeutics by 20.0% in the 4th quarter. S.A. Mason LLC now owns 1,800 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $72,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares during the period. Finally, Wolff Wiese Magana LLC purchased a new stake in Viking Therapeutics during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $75,000. 76.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Viking Therapeutics

In other news, COO Marianna Mancini sold 54,215 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.75, for a total value 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 represents a 12.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Brian Lian sold 194,490 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.75, for a total value of $8,314,447.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,366,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $101,170,867.50. This represents a 7.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 299,014 shares of company stock worth $12,782,849. 4.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VKTX has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Piper Sandler dropped their target price on Viking Therapeutics from $74.00 to $71.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 6th. 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 research report on Friday, February 7th. Raymond James lifted their target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $122.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and set a $102.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, Citigroup began coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a report on Friday, February 7th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $38.00 price objective on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $95.18.

Viking Therapeutics Price Performance

VKTX opened at $22.62 on Friday. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $21.53 and a 1-year high of $81.86. The stock has a market cap of $2.54 billion, a P/E ratio of -22.62 and a beta of 0.84. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $29.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $45.20.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.32) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.27) by ($0.05). During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($0.25) earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -1.56 EPS 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.