Braidwell LP Purchases 50,072 Shares of Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX)

Braidwell LP grew its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) by 4.5% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,156,977 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 50,072 shares during the period. Viking Therapeutics comprises 2.1% of Braidwell LP’s holdings, making the stock its 17th largest holding. Braidwell LP owned 1.04% of Viking Therapeutics worth $73,248,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Signaturefd LLC lifted its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 16.2% in the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,351 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $86,000 after purchasing an additional 188 shares during the last quarter. Stone House Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 66.7% in the 3rd quarter. Stone House Investment Management LLC now owns 500 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Keudell Morrison Wealth Management lifted its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 5.9% in the 3rd quarter. Keudell Morrison Wealth Management now owns 4,306 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $273,000 after purchasing an additional 241 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 124.6% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 438 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 243 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV lifted its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 84.3% in the 3rd quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 553 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 253 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently commented on VKTX shares. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $105.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $102.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Tuesday. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $138.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, B. Riley initiated coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $109.00 price target for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $109.73.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Up 2.0 %

VKTX opened at $54.51 on Friday. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $11.55 and a twelve month high of $99.41. The company has a fifty day moving average of $62.77 and a 200-day moving average of $59.83. The stock has a market cap of $6.07 billion, a PE ratio of -58.61 and a beta of 1.00.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 quarter last year, the firm earned ($0.23) earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -0.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other Viking Therapeutics news, Director Sarah Kathryn Rouan sold 11,000 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.89, for a total value of $889,790.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 9,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $768,455. The trade was a 53.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Brian Lian sold 216,130 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.83, for a total transaction of $15,308,487.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,304,927 shares in the company, valued at approximately $163,257,979.41. This represents a 8.57 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 371,117 shares of company stock worth $27,140,009 over the last three months. 4.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.