Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Shares Gap Up Following Analyst Upgrade

Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) gapped up before the market opened on Tuesday after Oppenheimer raised their price target on the stock from $116.00 to $138.00. The stock had previously closed at $69.19, but opened at $77.51. Oppenheimer currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Viking Therapeutics shares last traded at $81.71, with a volume of 5,346,560 shares traded.

Several other equities research analysts also recently issued reports on the company. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Friday, February 23rd. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Thursday, March 7th. They set a “buy” rating and a $110.00 target price on the stock. Truist Financial upped their price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $32.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $90.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Raymond James raised their price target on Viking Therapeutics from $37.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Viking Therapeutics presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $101.89.

Insider Activity at Viking Therapeutics

In other Viking Therapeutics news, Director Sarah Kathryn Rouan sold 30,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.05, for a total value of $691,500.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, CFO Greg Zante sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.90, for a total transaction of $268,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 180,730 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,235,067. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Sarah Kathryn Rouan sold 30,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.05, for a total transaction of $691,500.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 374,079 shares of company stock worth $9,729,653 in the last ninety days. 4.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BlackRock Inc. increased its position in Viking Therapeutics by 237.9% during the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 6,894,923 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $111,767,000 after purchasing an additional 4,854,645 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 1.8% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,381,904 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $100,157,000 after acquiring an additional 97,552 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in Viking Therapeutics by 2,039.4% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,280,944 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $87,928,000 after acquiring an additional 5,034,102 shares during the last quarter. Viking Global Investors LP increased its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 12.5% in the 4th quarter. Viking Global Investors LP now owns 5,145,112 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $95,751,000 after purchasing an additional 571,796 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its position in Viking Therapeutics by 21,586.9% in the second quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 2,961,561 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $48,007,000 after purchasing an additional 2,947,905 shares during the last quarter. 76.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Performance

The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $48.96 and a 200 day moving average price of $26.31.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.25) earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of ($0.25). During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.26) EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -1.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.