Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Buy” by Brokerages

Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) has received an average rating of “Buy” from the ten ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $111.56.

VKTX has been the subject of several recent research reports. StockNews.com upgraded Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. Maxim Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Tuesday, June 4th. Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Monday, June 17th. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and set a $90.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Monday, June 24th. Finally, Morgan Stanley began coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $105.00 target price for the company.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Viking Therapeutics news, CFO Greg Zante sold 66,756 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.69, for a total transaction of $4,986,005.64. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 174,854 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,059,845.26. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, CFO Greg Zante sold 66,756 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.69, for a total value of $4,986,005.64. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 174,854 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,059,845.26. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Marianna Mancini sold 281,425 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.66, for a total value of $22,136,890.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 348,508 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,413,639.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 4.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV acquired a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the first quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. acquired a new position in Viking Therapeutics during the second quarter worth $27,000. Lindbrook Capital LLC grew its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 370.7% during the first quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 353 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 278 shares during the period. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. acquired a new position in Viking Therapeutics during the fourth quarter worth $37,000. Finally, LifeSteps Financial Inc. acquired a new position in Viking Therapeutics during the first quarter worth $37,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.03% of the company’s stock.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of VKTX opened at $50.90 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $57.22 and a 200-day simple moving average of $55.13. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.61 billion, a PE ratio of -54.73 and a beta of 1.03. Viking Therapeutics has a 1 year low of $8.28 and a 1 year high of $99.41.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.26) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.27) by $0.01. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.25) earnings per share. Analysts predict that Viking Therapeutics will post -1.11 EPS for the current year.

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.