Royce & Associates LP Has $3.03 Million Position in Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX)

Royce & Associates LP increased its stake in Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) by 464.4% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 75,261 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 61,927 shares during the period. Royce & Associates LP’s holdings in Viking Therapeutics were worth $3,029,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Stone House Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 66.7% in the 3rd quarter. Stone House Investment Management LLC now owns 500 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. S.A. Mason LLC lifted its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 20.0% in the 4th quarter. S.A. Mason LLC now owns 1,800 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $72,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 75.9% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 716 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 309 shares during the last quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich lifted its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 7.4% in the 4th quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 4,980 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $221,000 after purchasing an additional 345 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arizona State Retirement System increased its position in Viking Therapeutics by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 28,929 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,164,000 after buying an additional 353 shares during the period. 76.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Viking Therapeutics Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:VKTX opened at $30.07 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $31.49 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $48.04. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $24.41 and a fifty-two week high of $89.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -30.07 and a beta of 0.90.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.32) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.27) by ($0.05). During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.25) earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -1.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on VKTX. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Raymond James lifted their price target on Viking Therapeutics from $122.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Scotiabank began coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $102.00 price target on the stock. B. Riley reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $96.00 price target (down from $109.00) on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $102.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $97.67.

Insider Buying and Selling at Viking Therapeutics

In other Viking Therapeutics news, COO Marianna Mancini sold 54,215 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.75, for a total value of $2,317,691.25. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 374,134 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,994,228.50. The trade was a 12.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Brian Lian sold 194,490 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.75, for a total value of $8,314,447.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,366,570 shares in the company, valued at approximately $101,170,867.50. This represents a 7.59 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 299,014 shares of company stock worth $12,782,849 over the last three months. Company insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

Viking Therapeutics 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.