Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Earns Overweight Rating from Analysts at Piper Sandler

Piper Sandler assumed coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) in a research note issued to investors on Monday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage issued an overweight rating and a $74.00 target price on the biotechnology company’s stock.

Other analysts have also issued research reports about the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. started coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $80.00 price objective on the stock. B. Riley started coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a report on Friday, November 22nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $109.00 price objective on the stock. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and set a $102.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $105.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $106.75.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Up 1.9 %

VKTX opened at $51.24 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.71 billion, a P/E ratio of -54.57 and a beta of 0.88. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $61.91 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $59.23. Viking Therapeutics has a 12-month low of $14.82 and a 12-month high of $99.41.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The biotechnology company reported ($0.22) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.24) by $0.02. During the same period last year, the business posted ($0.23) EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Viking Therapeutics will post -0.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Viking Therapeutics

In related news, Director J Matthew Singleton sold 10,300 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.50, for a total transaction of $715,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 9,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $660,250. The trade was a 52.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Brian Lian sold 216,130 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The stock was 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. This trade represents a 8.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 371,117 shares of company stock worth $27,140,009. 4.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Viking Therapeutics

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Blue Trust Inc. acquired a new position in Viking Therapeutics in the third quarter valued at about $26,000. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. acquired a new position in Viking Therapeutics in the second quarter valued at about $27,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 124.6% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 438 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 243 shares during the period. Gilliland Jeter Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Viking Therapeutics in the third quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, Stone House Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 66.7% in the third quarter. Stone House Investment Management LLC now owns 500 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares during the period. 76.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.