GSA Capital Partners LLP Has $517,000 Stock Position in Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX)

GSA Capital Partners LLP raised its position in Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) by 64.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 8,160 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,202 shares during the period. GSA Capital Partners LLP’s holdings in Viking Therapeutics were worth $517,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Blue Trust Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $27,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 124.6% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 438 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $28,000 after buying an additional 243 shares in the last quarter. Gilliland Jeter Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV raised its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 84.3% in the 3rd quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 553 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 253 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Viking Therapeutics

In related news, CEO Brian Lian sold 216,130 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Lawson Macartney sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.67, for a total value of $137,340.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 47,965 shares in the company, valued at $3,293,756.55. The trade was a 4.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 371,117 shares of company stock worth $27,140,009 in the last three months. Insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VKTX has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Raymond James increased their target price on Viking Therapeutics from $116.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $105.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. HC Wainwright increased their price target on Viking Therapeutics from $90.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. StockNews.com upgraded Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $138.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $109.80.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of VKTX opened at $51.51 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -55.39 and a beta of 1.00. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $64.42 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $60.82. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $11.21 and a 52 week high of $99.41.

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

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.