HC Wainwright Reiterates Buy Rating for Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX)

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reissued by research analysts at HC Wainwright in a research report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $102.00 target price on the biotechnology company’s stock. HC Wainwright’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 204.48% from the stock’s current price.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on the stock. 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 note on Thursday. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. StockNews.com upgraded Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, B. Riley assumed coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $109.00 target price on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $106.50.

Viking Therapeutics Price Performance

Shares of VKTX opened at $33.50 on Thursday. Viking Therapeutics has a one year low of $23.11 and a one year high of $99.41. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $40.92 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $54.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.73 billion, a PE ratio of -36.02 and a beta of 0.90.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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 company posted ($0.25) earnings per share. Analysts expect that Viking Therapeutics will post -0.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Marianna Mancini sold 54,215 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.75, for a total transaction of $2,317,691.25. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 374,134 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,994,228.50. The trade was a 12.66 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Lawson Macartney sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.67, for a total value of $137,340.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 47,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,293,756.55. This trade represents a 4.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 301,014 shares of company stock valued at $12,920,189 in the last quarter. 4.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Viking Therapeutics

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of VKTX. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 10,775.6% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,004,033 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $63,565,000 after buying an additional 994,801 shares in the last quarter. Perpetual Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 55.4% in the third quarter. Perpetual Ltd now owns 1,269,152 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $80,350,000 after acquiring an additional 452,344 shares during the period. Fiera Capital Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the third quarter worth about $18,443,000. Eventide Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 79.1% during the 3rd quarter. Eventide Asset Management LLC now owns 452,969 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $28,677,000 after purchasing an additional 200,000 shares during the period. Finally, Nepsis Inc. purchased a new position in Viking Therapeutics in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $11,251,000. 76.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.