Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Stock Price Down 0.5% – Here’s What Happened

Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX)’s share price fell 0.5% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $65.22 and last traded at $65.54. 267,433 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 94% from the average session volume of 4,326,089 shares. The stock had previously closed at $65.85.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on VKTX. JPMorgan Chase & Co. started coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $80.00 price target on the stock. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $138.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $105.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Raymond James lifted 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, StockNews.com upgraded Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Viking Therapeutics currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $108.60.

Viking Therapeutics Price Performance

The stock’s 50 day moving average is $62.29 and its two-hundred day moving average is $62.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.23 billion, a P/E ratio of -70.47 and a beta of 1.00.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.20) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.26) by $0.06. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.19) EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -1 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, COO Marianna Mancini sold 18,026 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 362,149 shares in the company, valued at $20,689,572.37. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Viking Therapeutics news, Director J Matthew Singleton sold 10,300 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.50, for a total value of $715,850.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 9,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $660,250. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, COO Marianna Mancini sold 18,026 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 $20,689,572.37. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 516,671 shares of company stock worth $33,810,813. Insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Viking Therapeutics

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Viking Therapeutics by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,381,904 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $100,157,000 after purchasing an additional 97,552 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC increased its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 70.6% during the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,518 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $80,000 after purchasing an additional 628 shares during the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 721.9% in the 3rd quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 180,000 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $11,396,000 after buying an additional 158,100 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $1,422,000. Finally, Blue Owl Capital Holdings LP acquired a new position in Viking Therapeutics during the second quarter worth $5,036,000. 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.