Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) Short Interest Up 32.8% in June

Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) was the target of a large growth in short interest during the month of June. As of June 30th, there was short interest totalling 16,830,000 shares, a growth of 32.8% from the June 15th total of 12,670,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 3,360,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 5.0 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently commented on VKTX shares. Maxim Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Tuesday, June 4th. Raymond James reissued a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Tuesday, June 4th. Morgan Stanley started coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $105.00 price target for the company. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $90.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Monday, June 24th. Finally, Oppenheimer increased their price target on Viking Therapeutics from $116.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $111.56.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Greg Zante sold 66,756 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.69, for a total value of $4,986,005.64. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 174,854 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,059,845.26. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Greg Zante sold 66,756 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.69, for a total transaction of $4,986,005.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 174,854 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,059,845.26. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, COO Marianna Mancini sold 281,425 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.66, for a total value of $22,136,890.50. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 348,508 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,413,639.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Viking Therapeutics

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 44.7% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,785,724 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $638,429,000 after buying an additional 2,403,820 shares during the period. Avoro Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the first quarter valued at $294,380,000. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 59.6% during the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,202,228 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $24,379,000 after purchasing an additional 822,156 shares during the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 32.4% during the fourth quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 1,274,945 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $23,727,000 after purchasing an additional 311,681 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 88.3% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,119,885 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $20,841,000 after purchasing an additional 525,296 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.03% of the company’s stock.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Down 2.5 %

Shares of Viking Therapeutics stock opened at $57.18 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $6.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -61.48 and a beta of 1.03. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $59.70 and a 200-day simple moving average of $54.17. Viking Therapeutics has a fifty-two week low of $8.28 and a fifty-two week high of $99.41.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.26) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.27) by $0.01. During the same period last year, the business posted ($0.25) earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Viking Therapeutics will post -1.11 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.