Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Upgraded at StockNews.com

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) was upgraded by investment analysts at StockNews.com to a “sell” rating in a research note issued on Tuesday.

VKTX has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Raymond James increased their price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $116.00 to $118.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. initiated coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $80.00 target price on the stock. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and set a $90.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $105.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $108.60.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Down 7.7 %

NASDAQ:VKTX opened at $65.01 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $59.19 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $62.95. Viking Therapeutics has a 52 week low of $8.28 and a 52 week high of $99.41. The stock has a market cap of $7.17 billion, a PE ratio of -69.90 and a beta of 1.00.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.20) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.26) by $0.06. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($0.19) EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Viking Therapeutics will post -1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Brian Lian sold 115,859 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.58, for a total value of $6,671,161.22. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,354,927 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $135,596,696.66. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Viking Therapeutics news, CEO Brian Lian sold 115,859 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 30th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $135,596,696.66. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director J Matthew Singleton sold 10,300 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.50, for a total value of $715,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 9,500 shares in the company, valued at $660,250. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 516,671 shares of company stock worth $33,810,813 over the last three months. 4.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Viking Therapeutics

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in VKTX. Sanctuary Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Viking Therapeutics in the 2nd quarter worth about $190,000. Dana Investment Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 242.7% during the second quarter. Dana Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 9,943 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $527,000 after acquiring an additional 7,042 shares during the period. Aristides Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 120.0% during the second quarter. Aristides Capital LLC now owns 11,000 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $583,000 after acquiring an additional 6,000 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 114.0% in the second quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 49,311 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $2,614,000 after purchasing an additional 26,270 shares during the period. Finally, Truist Financial Corp grew its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 357.1% in the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 26,049 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,381,000 after purchasing an additional 20,350 shares in the last quarter. 76.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.