William Blair Has Negative Estimate for VKTX FY2024 Earnings

Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) – Research analysts at William Blair decreased their FY2024 EPS estimates for Viking Therapeutics in a research note issued on Wednesday, October 23rd. William Blair analyst A. Hsieh now anticipates that the biotechnology company will post earnings per share of ($0.96) for the year, down from their previous estimate of ($0.95). The consensus estimate for Viking Therapeutics’ current full-year earnings is ($0.98) per share. William Blair also issued estimates for Viking Therapeutics’ Q4 2024 earnings at ($0.27) EPS, Q1 2025 earnings at ($0.28) EPS, Q2 2025 earnings at ($0.28) EPS, Q3 2025 earnings at ($0.30) EPS, Q4 2025 earnings at ($0.29) EPS, FY2025 earnings at ($1.15) EPS and FY2026 earnings at ($1.19) EPS.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on VKTX. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $138.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report 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 report on Thursday, July 25th. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and set a $90.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Thursday, October 24th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $105.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. initiated coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $80.00 target price for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $108.60.

Viking Therapeutics Price Performance

Viking Therapeutics stock opened at $73.35 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.09 billion, a PE ratio of -78.87 and a beta of 1.00. Viking Therapeutics has a 12-month low of $9.25 and a 12-month high of $99.41. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $63.97 and a 200-day simple moving average of $61.67.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The biotechnology company reported ($0.22) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.24) by $0.02. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.23) earnings per share.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Viking Therapeutics news, CFO Greg Zante sold 131,687 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.61, for a total value of $10,088,541.07. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 149,366 shares in the company, valued at $11,442,929.26. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Greg Zante sold 131,687 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.61, for a total transaction of $10,088,541.07. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 149,366 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,442,929.26. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Sarah Kathryn Rouan sold 11,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.89, for a total transaction of $889,790.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 9,500 shares in the company, valued at $768,455. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 525,473 shares of company stock worth $37,088,158 in the last quarter. 4.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Nvwm LLC bought a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the 3rd quarter valued at $999,000. Emerald Advisers LLC raised its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Emerald Advisers LLC now owns 339,047 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $21,465,000 after acquiring an additional 12,001 shares during the period. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 119.5% in the 3rd quarter. Harbor Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 139,252 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $8,816,000 after acquiring an additional 75,820 shares during the period. Emerald Mutual Fund Advisers Trust raised its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Emerald Mutual Fund Advisers Trust now owns 244,526 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $15,481,000 after acquiring an additional 2,158 shares during the period. Finally, Janney Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Viking Therapeutics in the 3rd quarter worth $219,000. Institutional investors own 76.03% of the company’s stock.

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.