William Blair Reiterates Outperform Rating for Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX)

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reaffirmed by investment analysts at William Blair in a research note issued on Wednesday,RTT News reports.

Several other research analysts have also commented on the company. StockNews.com upgraded Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $105.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Thursday, September 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. assumed coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $80.00 price target for the company. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $138.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, HC Wainwright increased their price objective on Viking Therapeutics from $90.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Viking Therapeutics currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $109.80.

Viking Therapeutics Trading Up 0.4 %

VKTX opened at $51.75 on Wednesday. Viking Therapeutics has a twelve month low of $11.21 and a twelve month high of $99.41. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.77 billion, a PE ratio of -55.64 and a beta of 1.00. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $64.01 and its 200 day moving average price is $60.70.

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

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Brian Lian sold 216,130 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The stock was 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 owns 2,304,927 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $163,257,979.41. This represents a 8.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Lawson Macartney sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.67, for a total value of $137,340.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 47,965 shares in the company, valued at $3,293,756.55. This represents a 4.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 371,117 shares of company stock valued at $27,140,009. 4.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Viking Therapeutics

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Blue Trust Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the third quarter worth about $26,000. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. acquired a new position in Viking Therapeutics during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $27,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 124.6% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 438 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 243 shares during the last quarter. Gilliland Jeter Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the 3rd quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, Stone House Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 66.7% during 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. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.03% of the company’s stock.

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.