Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Raised to “Strong-Buy” at B. Riley

B. Riley upgraded shares of Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) to a strong-buy rating in a report released on Thursday morning,Zacks.com reports.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $105.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. Raymond James increased their price objective on Viking Therapeutics from $116.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $138.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. StockNews.com raised Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. began coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $80.00 price objective on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $109.73.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Performance

VKTX stock opened at $52.59 on Thursday. Viking Therapeutics has a fifty-two week low of $11.55 and a fifty-two week high of $99.41. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $63.73 and its 200 day simple moving average is $60.25. The company has a market cap of $5.86 billion, a P/E ratio of -56.55 and a beta of 1.00.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Lawson Macartney sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.67, for a total transaction of $137,340.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 47,965 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,293,756.55. This represents a 4.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Brian Lian sold 216,130 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.83, for a total value of $15,308,487.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,304,927 shares in the company, valued at $163,257,979.41. This represents a 8.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 371,117 shares of company stock worth $27,140,009. Insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Viking Therapeutics

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Second Line Capital LLC boosted its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 34.1% in the 3rd quarter. Second Line Capital LLC now owns 38,118 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $2,413,000 after buying an additional 9,699 shares during the period. Vestcor Inc purchased a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the third quarter valued at $741,000. M&T Bank Corp bought a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the 3rd quarter valued at $354,000. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio lifted its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 12.9% during the 3rd quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 45,252 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $2,865,000 after purchasing an additional 5,155 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MML Investors Services LLC boosted its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 193.1% in the 3rd quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 20,352 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,288,000 after purchasing an additional 13,409 shares during the period. 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.