Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Earns “Buy” Rating from HC Wainwright

HC Wainwright reiterated their buy rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) in a research report report published on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. HC Wainwright currently has a $90.00 price target on the biotechnology company’s stock.

VKTX has been the topic of a number of other reports. BTIG Research increased their price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $100.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Raymond James raised their target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $37.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Tuesday, February 27th. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $116.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a buy rating and set a $80.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Friday, March 15th. Finally, William Blair restated an outperform rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Friday, February 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $112.25.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Up 5.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ VKTX opened at $68.86 on Thursday. Viking Therapeutics has a 1 year low of $8.28 and a 1 year high of $99.41. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $67.61 and its 200-day moving average is $34.55.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.26) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.27) by $0.01. During the same quarter last year, the company earned ($0.25) earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Viking Therapeutics will post -1.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Brian Lian sold 269,079 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.87, for a total value of $7,230,152.73. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,184,882 shares in the company, valued at $58,707,779.34. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Viking Therapeutics news, CEO Brian Lian sold 269,079 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.87, for a total value of $7,230,152.73. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,184,882 shares in the company, valued at $58,707,779.34. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Sarah Kathryn Rouan sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.05, for a total transaction of $701,250.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 329,079 shares of company stock worth $8,769,653 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Viking Therapeutics

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Lindbrook Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 370.7% in the first quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 353 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $29,000 after acquiring an additional 278 shares in the last quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV acquired a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the first quarter valued at about $25,000. Global Retirement Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 125.6% in the first quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 1,015 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $83,000 after acquiring an additional 565 shares in the last quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund grew its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 39,321 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $732,000 after acquiring an additional 609 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Spire Wealth Management acquired a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the first quarter valued at about $61,000. 76.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.