BIT Capital GmbH Has $5.01 Million Position in Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX)

BIT Capital GmbH trimmed its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) by 7.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 124,443 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after selling 9,670 shares during the quarter. BIT Capital GmbH owned approximately 0.11% of Viking Therapeutics worth $5,008,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its position in Viking Therapeutics by 75.9% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 716 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 309 shares during the period. Stone House Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 66.7% during the third quarter. Stone House Investment Management LLC now owns 500 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. YANKCOM Partnership bought a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the fourth quarter worth $33,000. S.A. Mason LLC increased its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 20.0% in the fourth quarter. S.A. Mason LLC now owns 1,800 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $72,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the period. Finally, Wolff Wiese Magana LLC bought a new position in Viking Therapeutics during the 4th quarter worth $75,000. 76.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Viking Therapeutics news, CEO Brian Lian sold 194,490 shares of the business’s 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 $8,314,447.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,366,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $101,170,867.50. The trade was a 7.59 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, 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 value of $2,317,691.25. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 374,134 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,994,228.50. This trade represents a 12.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 299,014 shares of company stock worth $12,782,849. Insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VKTX has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Piper Sandler reduced their price target on Viking Therapeutics from $74.00 to $71.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Scotiabank initiated coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a report on Thursday, February 13th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $102.00 target price on the stock. B. Riley restated a “buy” rating and set a $96.00 price target (down previously from $109.00) on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Friday, February 7th. Raymond James upped their price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $122.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Citigroup started coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, February 7th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $38.00 target price for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $95.18.

Viking Therapeutics Price Performance

Shares of VKTX opened at $26.34 on Thursday. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. has a one year low of $24.41 and a one year high of $85.20. The company has a market cap of $2.96 billion, a PE ratio of -26.34 and a beta of 0.90. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $30.55 and a 200-day moving average of $47.00.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.32) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.27) by ($0.05). During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.25) earnings per share. Analysts expect that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -1.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Viking Therapeutics

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.