Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA Has $54.62 Million Stake in Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX)

Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) by 446.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,357,241 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,108,972 shares during the quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA’s holdings in Viking Therapeutics were worth $54,615,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Insider Transactions at Viking Therapeutics

In other news, Director Sarah Kathryn Rouan bought 1,240 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 31st. The stock was purchased at an average price of $24.15 per share, with a total value of $29,946.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 1,240 shares in the company, valued at approximately $29,946. The trade was a ∞ increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Brian Lian sold 194,490 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.75, for a total transaction of $8,314,447.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,366,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $101,170,867.50. This trade represents a 7.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 299,014 shares of company stock worth $12,782,849. 4.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. Citigroup assumed coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Friday, February 7th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $38.00 price objective on the stock. Scotiabank assumed coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Thursday, February 13th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $102.00 price target on the stock. Maxim Group dropped their price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $120.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and set a $102.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, Raymond James upped their target price on Viking Therapeutics from $122.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $95.18.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Performance

VKTX opened at $22.62 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $2.54 billion, a PE ratio of -22.62 and a beta of 0.84. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $29.32 and a 200-day moving average of $45.20. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. has a 52-week low of $21.53 and a 52-week high of $81.86.

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 period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.25) earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -1.56 earnings per share for the current 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.