Jones Financial Companies Lllp Acquires 6,952 Shares of Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX)

Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its holdings in Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) by 34.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 26,885 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,952 shares during the quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp’s holdings in Viking Therapeutics were worth $1,082,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of VKTX. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 29.9% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 593,528 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $37,576,000 after acquiring an additional 136,729 shares during the last quarter. Lewis Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 14.9% during the third quarter. Lewis Asset Management LLC now owns 30,395 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,924,000 after purchasing an additional 3,950 shares in the last quarter. Quantum Private Wealth LLC boosted its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 9.3% during the third quarter. Quantum Private Wealth LLC now owns 84,084 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $5,323,000 after purchasing an additional 7,161 shares in the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp bought a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the third quarter worth $18,443,000. Finally, Cahill Wealth Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 9.5% during the third quarter. Cahill Wealth Management LLC now owns 13,780 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $872,000 after purchasing an additional 1,196 shares in the last quarter. 76.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $74.00 to $71.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and set a $102.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. B. Riley reissued a “buy” rating and set a $96.00 price target (down from $109.00) on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Citigroup initiated coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Friday, February 7th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $38.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Raymond James raised their price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $122.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $96.31.

Insider Buying and Selling at Viking Therapeutics

In other news, CFO Greg Zante sold 50,309 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.75, for a total transaction of $2,150,709.75. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 165,259 shares in the company, valued at $7,064,822.25. The trade was a 23.34 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Brian Lian sold 194,490 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.75, for a total transaction of $8,314,447.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,366,570 shares in the company, valued at $101,170,867.50. This represents a 7.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 299,014 shares of company stock worth $12,782,849. Insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

Viking Therapeutics Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of VKTX stock opened at $29.10 on Friday. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $24.41 and a 1 year high of $89.10. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $33.63 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $50.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.27 billion, a P/E ratio of -29.10 and a beta of 0.90.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.32) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.27) by ($0.05). During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted ($0.25) EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -1.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Viking Therapeutics 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.