Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Now Covered by Analysts at B. Riley

Equities researchers at B. Riley initiated coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) in a research report issued on Friday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The firm set a “buy” rating and a $109.00 price target on the biotechnology company’s stock. B. Riley’s price objective points to a potential upside of 110.65% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on VKTX. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $138.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $105.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Raymond James increased their price target on Viking Therapeutics from $116.00 to $118.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. started coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $80.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, HC Wainwright increased their target price on Viking Therapeutics from $90.00 to $102.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $109.73.

Viking Therapeutics Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of Viking Therapeutics stock opened at $51.75 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $64.01 and its 200 day moving average price is $60.70. Viking Therapeutics has a twelve month low of $11.21 and a twelve month high of $99.41. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.77 billion, a P/E ratio of -55.64 and a beta of 1.00.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The biotechnology company reported ($0.22) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.24) by $0.02. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($0.23) earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Viking Therapeutics will post -0.98 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Viking Therapeutics

In related news, Director Sarah Kathryn Rouan sold 11,000 shares of Viking Therapeutics 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 transaction, 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Brian Lian sold 216,130 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owns 2,304,927 shares in the company, valued at $163,257,979.41. The trade was a 8.57 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 371,117 shares of company stock valued at $27,140,009. Insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Viking Therapeutics

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 0.5% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 16,619,430 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,052,176,000 after purchasing an additional 79,149 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 44.7% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,785,724 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $638,429,000 after buying an additional 2,403,820 shares during the period. Perpetual Ltd grew its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 55.4% during the 3rd quarter. Perpetual Ltd now owns 1,269,152 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $80,350,000 after buying an additional 452,344 shares during the last quarter. Braidwell LP raised its stake 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 lifted its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 10,775.6% in 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 last quarter. 76.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.