B. Riley Reaffirms Buy Rating for Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX)

B. Riley reaffirmed their buy rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) in a research report report published on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $96.00 price target on the biotechnology company’s stock, down from their previous price target of $109.00.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on VKTX. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $102.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on Viking Therapeutics from $74.00 to $71.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Citigroup began coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a report on Friday. They set a “neutral” rating and a $38.00 price objective on the stock. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, Raymond James lifted their price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $122.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, twelve have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $96.92.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:VKTX opened at $32.56 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $3.63 billion, a P/E ratio of -32.56 and a beta of 0.90. Viking Therapeutics has a one year low of $25.34 and a one year high of $99.41. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $40.05 and its 200 day simple moving average is $53.92.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.32) 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) EPS. Analysts predict that Viking Therapeutics will post -1.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Viking Therapeutics

In other news, COO Marianna Mancini sold 54,215 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.75, for a total transaction of $2,317,691.25. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 374,134 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,994,228.50. This represents a 12.66 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Greg Zante sold 50,309 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 value of $2,150,709.75. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 165,259 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $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 worth $12,782,849. 4.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Viking Therapeutics

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Creative Planning grew its position in Viking Therapeutics by 3.4% in the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 15,753 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $835,000 after purchasing an additional 524 shares during the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp boosted its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 357.1% during the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 26,049 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,381,000 after buying an additional 20,350 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 114.0% in the 2nd quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 49,311 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $2,614,000 after buying an additional 26,270 shares in the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Viking Therapeutics in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $190,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 124.6% during the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 438 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 243 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.