Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Announces Earnings Results

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) posted its earnings results on Wednesday. The biotechnology company reported ($0.22) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.24) by $0.02, Briefing.com reports. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.23) earnings per share.

Viking Therapeutics Price Performance

Viking Therapeutics stock traded up $12.83 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $73.22. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 16,322,708 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,350,632. Viking Therapeutics has a 52-week low of $8.28 and a 52-week high of $99.41. The company has a market cap of $8.07 billion, a PE ratio of -78.73 and a beta of 1.00. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $62.92 and its 200 day moving average is $61.66.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $105.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Thursday, September 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. initiated coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $80.00 price target on the stock. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $138.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Raymond James raised their target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $116.00 to $118.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $90.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $108.60.

Insider Activity

In related news, COO Marianna Mancini sold 18,026 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.13, for a total transaction of $1,029,825.38. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 362,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,689,572.37. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, COO Marianna Mancini sold 18,026 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.13, for a total value of $1,029,825.38. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 362,149 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,689,572.37. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Brian Lian sold 216,130 shares of Viking Therapeutics 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,304,927 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $163,257,979.41. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 516,671 shares of company stock worth $33,810,813 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

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.