Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. Acquires New Stake in Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX)

Farmers & Merchants Investments Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 13,250 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock, valued at approximately $702,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in VKTX. Lindbrook Capital LLC raised its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 370.7% during the first quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 353 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 278 shares in the last quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV acquired a new position in Viking Therapeutics during the 1st quarter worth approximately $25,000. 9258 Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 2.9% during the 1st quarter. 9258 Wealth Management LLC now owns 12,379 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,015,000 after buying an additional 351 shares in the last quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 5.5% in the 2nd quarter. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. now owns 7,457 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $395,000 after buying an additional 386 shares during the period. Finally, LifeSteps Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the first quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other Viking Therapeutics news, Director J Matthew Singleton sold 20,786 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.53, for a total value of $1,195,818.58. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 9,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $546,535. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Brian Lian sold 115,859 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.58, for a total transaction of $6,671,161.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,354,927 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $135,596,696.66. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director J Matthew Singleton sold 20,786 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.53, for a total transaction of $1,195,818.58. Following the transaction, the director now owns 9,500 shares in the company, valued at $546,535. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 290,241 shares of company stock valued at $17,786,475 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Performance

Viking Therapeutics stock opened at $54.13 on Friday. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $8.28 and a fifty-two week high of $99.41. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $57.18 and a two-hundred day moving average of $63.26. The company has a market capitalization of $6.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -58.20 and a beta of 1.00.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.20) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.26) by $0.06. During the same quarter last year, the company posted ($0.19) earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -0.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VKTX has been the subject of several research analyst reports. StockNews.com upgraded Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Truist Financial reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $120.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Monday, June 17th. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and set a $90.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Raymond James lifted their price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $116.00 to $118.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Morgan Stanley began coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a report on Thursday, June 27th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $105.00 price target on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Viking Therapeutics has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $111.78.

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.