Viking Therapeutics’ (VKTX) Buy Rating Reaffirmed at HC Wainwright

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by analysts at HC Wainwright in a report released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $102.00 price target on the biotechnology company’s stock. HC Wainwright’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 86.92% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other analysts have also recently weighed in on VKTX. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $105.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. started coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $80.00 price objective for the company. B. Riley began coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a report on Friday. They set a “buy” rating and a $109.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $138.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $109.73.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of VKTX stock traded up $2.58 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $54.57. The company had a trading volume of 3,273,405 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,522,232. Viking Therapeutics has a 12-month low of $11.55 and a 12-month high of $99.41. The company has a market capitalization of $6.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -58.68 and a beta of 1.00. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $63.43 and a 200-day moving average of $60.05.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The biotechnology company reported ($0.22) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.24) by $0.02. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.23) earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Viking Therapeutics will post -0.98 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Brian Lian sold 216,130 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.83, for a total value of $15,308,487.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,304,927 shares in the company, valued at approximately $163,257,979.41. This trade represents a 8.57 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Sarah Kathryn Rouan sold 11,000 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.89, for a total transaction of $889,790.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 9,500 shares in the company, valued at approximately $768,455. The trade was a 53.66 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 371,117 shares of company stock valued at $27,140,009. 4.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 10,775.6% during 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 acquiring an additional 994,801 shares in the last quarter. Perpetual Ltd raised its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 55.4% during the third quarter. Perpetual Ltd now owns 1,269,152 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $80,350,000 after purchasing an additional 452,344 shares during the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp purchased a new stake in Viking Therapeutics during the third quarter worth $18,443,000. Artal Group S.A. acquired a new stake in Viking Therapeutics in the first quarter valued at $20,817,000. Finally, Eventide Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 79.1% in the third quarter. Eventide Asset Management LLC now owns 452,969 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $28,677,000 after buying an additional 200,000 shares in the last quarter. 76.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.