Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Coverage Initiated at B. Riley

B. Riley initiated coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) in a research note published on Friday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage issued a buy rating and a $109.00 target price on the biotechnology company’s stock. B. Riley also issued estimates for Viking Therapeutics’ Q4 2024 earnings at ($0.24) EPS, Q1 2025 earnings at ($0.29) EPS, Q2 2025 earnings at ($0.30) EPS, Q3 2025 earnings at ($0.32) EPS, Q4 2025 earnings at ($0.32) EPS, FY2025 earnings at ($1.23) EPS, FY2026 earnings at ($1.74) EPS, FY2027 earnings at ($2.53) EPS and FY2028 earnings at ($1.83) EPS.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on VKTX. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $138.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. initiated coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $80.00 target price on the stock. HC Wainwright upped their price target on Viking Therapeutics from $90.00 to $102.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. Finally, Raymond James lifted their price objective on Viking Therapeutics from $116.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $109.73.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of VKTX stock opened at $52.59 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $63.73 and its 200 day simple moving average is $60.25. Viking Therapeutics has a twelve month low of $11.55 and a twelve month high of $99.41. The company has a market capitalization of $5.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -56.55 and a beta of 1.00.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The biotechnology company reported ($0.22) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.24) by $0.02. During the same period last year, the business posted ($0.23) earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Viking Therapeutics will post -0.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Viking Therapeutics

In other news, Director Sarah Kathryn Rouan sold 11,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.89, for a total value of $889,790.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $768,455. The trade was a 53.66 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Brian Lian sold 216,130 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The shares were 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 $163,257,979.41. This represents a 8.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 371,117 shares of company stock worth $27,140,009 over the last three months. Company insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Viking Therapeutics

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Viking Therapeutics by 44.7% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,785,724 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $638,429,000 after buying an additional 2,403,820 shares in the last quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the first quarter valued at approximately $327,000. American International Group Inc. raised its position in Viking Therapeutics by 5.6% in the 1st quarter. American International Group Inc. now owns 50,466 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $4,138,000 after purchasing an additional 2,672 shares during the last quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co lifted its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 774.9% during the 1st quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 76,636 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $6,295,000 after buying an additional 67,877 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Shell Asset Management Co. bought a new position in Viking Therapeutics in the 1st quarter valued at $262,000. Institutional investors own 76.03% of the company’s stock.

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.