Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Trading Up 2% – Still a Buy?

Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) shares shot up 2% on Monday . The company traded as high as $48.28 and last traded at $47.95. 587,577 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 87% from the average session volume of 4,421,835 shares. The stock had previously closed at $47.03.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. B. Riley started coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $109.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $105.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Thursday, September 12th. StockNews.com raised shares of Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $138.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. started coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $80.00 target price for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $106.75.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Down 18.0 %

The company has a market capitalization of $4.27 billion, a P/E ratio of -41.16 and a beta of 0.88. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $58.96 and its 200 day simple moving average is $58.20.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The biotechnology company reported ($0.22) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.24) by $0.02. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.23) earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -0.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Viking Therapeutics

In other Viking Therapeutics news, Director Lawson Macartney sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.67, for a total value of $137,340.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 47,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,293,756.55. This represents a 4.00 % decrease in their position. 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 the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.83, for a total transaction of $15,308,487.90. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,304,927 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $163,257,979.41. This represents a 8.57 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 371,117 shares of company stock worth $27,140,009 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Viking Therapeutics

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 16,619,430 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,052,176,000 after acquiring an additional 79,149 shares during the period. Perpetual Ltd lifted its position in Viking Therapeutics by 55.4% in the third quarter. Perpetual Ltd now owns 1,269,152 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $80,350,000 after purchasing an additional 452,344 shares during the period. Braidwell LP boosted 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 buying an additional 50,072 shares in the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake 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 valued at $63,565,000 after acquiring an additional 994,801 shares during the period. Finally, Westfield Capital Management Co. LP raised its position in Viking Therapeutics by 18.3% in the third quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 930,370 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $58,902,000 after purchasing an additional 143,675 shares in the last quarter. 76.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.