Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Trading Up 0.3% – Here’s Why

Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX)’s stock price traded up 0.3% on Thursday . The company traded as high as $52.22 and last traded at $51.67. 790,820 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 83% from the average session volume of 4,531,834 shares. The stock had previously closed at $51.53.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. began coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $80.00 price objective on the stock. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $138.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. B. Riley assumed coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Friday. They issued a “buy” rating and a $109.00 price target on the stock. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, HC Wainwright lifted their price objective on Viking Therapeutics from $90.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Viking Therapeutics currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $109.73.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Performance

The company has a fifty day moving average of $63.73 and a two-hundred day moving average of $60.52. The company has a market cap of $5.86 billion, a PE ratio of -56.55 and a beta of 1.00.

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

Insider Transactions at Viking Therapeutics

In other Viking Therapeutics news, Director Sarah Kathryn Rouan sold 11,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.89, for a total value 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. This trade represents a 53.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Lawson Macartney sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.67, for a total value of $137,340.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 47,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,293,756.55. The trade was a 4.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 371,117 shares of company stock valued at $27,140,009. 4.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Viking Therapeutics

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 0.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 16,619,430 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,052,176,000 after acquiring an additional 79,149 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 44.7% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,785,724 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $638,429,000 after acquiring an additional 2,403,820 shares during the period. Perpetual Ltd grew 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 acquiring an additional 452,344 shares during the period. Braidwell LP grew its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 4.5% during the third quarter. Braidwell LP now owns 1,156,977 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $73,248,000 after acquiring an additional 50,072 shares during the period. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 10,775.6% during the third 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 during the period. 76.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.