Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) Receives $109.80 Average PT from Brokerages

Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) has received an average recommendation of “Buy” from the eleven research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $109.80.

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on VKTX. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $138.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Raymond James raised their target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $116.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. StockNews.com raised shares of Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $105.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. assumed coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $80.00 price target on the stock.

Insider Transactions at Viking Therapeutics

In other Viking Therapeutics news, Director Sarah Kathryn Rouan sold 11,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.89, for a total transaction of $889,790.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 9,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $768,455. This represents a 53.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Brian Lian sold 216,130 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 20th. The shares were 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 directly owns 2,304,927 shares in the company, valued at approximately $163,257,979.41. This trade represents a 8.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 371,117 shares of company stock worth $27,140,009. Company insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Blue Trust Inc. bought a new position in Viking Therapeutics during the third quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the 2nd quarter valued at $27,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 124.6% during the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 438 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 243 shares in the last quarter. Gilliland Jeter Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the 3rd quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Stone House Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of 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. 76.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Viking Therapeutics Trading Up 0.0 %

Shares of VKTX opened at $51.53 on Monday. Viking Therapeutics has a 12 month low of $11.21 and a 12 month high of $99.41. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $64.24 and a 200 day simple moving average of $60.76. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -55.41 and a beta of 1.00.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The biotechnology company reported ($0.22) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.24) by $0.02. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.23) earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Viking Therapeutics will post -0.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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.