NINE MASTS CAPITAL Ltd Buys 32,559 Shares of Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX)

NINE MASTS CAPITAL Ltd increased its stake in Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) by 757.5% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 36,857 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 32,559 shares during the quarter. NINE MASTS CAPITAL Ltd’s holdings in Viking Therapeutics were worth $1,483,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Stone House Investment Management LLC raised its position in Viking Therapeutics by 66.7% during the third quarter. Stone House Investment Management LLC now owns 500 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Keudell Morrison Wealth Management raised its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 5.9% in the 3rd quarter. Keudell Morrison Wealth Management now owns 4,306 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $273,000 after purchasing an additional 241 shares during the period. S.A. Mason LLC raised its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 20.0% in the 4th quarter. S.A. Mason LLC now owns 1,800 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $72,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 75.9% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 716 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 309 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 12.9% during the third quarter. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 3,500 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $222,000 after purchasing an additional 400 shares during the period. 76.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of NASDAQ:VKTX opened at $28.87 on Monday. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. has a 12-month low of $27.20 and a 12-month high of $96.74. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $34.82 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $51.07. The firm has a market cap of $3.22 billion, a PE ratio of -28.87 and a beta of 0.90.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.32) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.27) by ($0.05). During the same period last year, the business earned ($0.25) earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -1.56 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Viking Therapeutics

In other Viking Therapeutics news, CEO Brian Lian sold 194,490 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.75, for a total transaction of $8,314,447.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,366,570 shares in the company, valued at $101,170,867.50. The trade was a 7.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Greg Zante sold 50,309 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.75, for a total value of $2,150,709.75. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 165,259 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,064,822.25. This represents a 23.34 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 299,014 shares of company stock valued at $12,782,849. 4.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on VKTX shares. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and issued a $102.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. B. Riley restated a “buy” rating and issued a $96.00 price target (down previously from $109.00) on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Scotiabank began coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $102.00 price objective for the company. Piper Sandler dropped their price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $74.00 to $71.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Citigroup started coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, February 7th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $38.00 target price for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, thirteen have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Viking Therapeutics presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $97.29.

Viking Therapeutics 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.