Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Upgraded at B. Riley

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) was upgraded by analysts at B. Riley to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

Other research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. started coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $80.00 price target for the company. Raymond James increased their price objective on Viking Therapeutics from $116.00 to $118.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $138.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, HC Wainwright boosted their price target on Viking Therapeutics from $90.00 to $102.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $109.73.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Up 1.9 %

NASDAQ:VKTX opened at $52.59 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $63.73 and its 200 day moving average price is $60.52. Viking Therapeutics has a 52-week low of $11.55 and a 52-week high of $99.41. The company has a market capitalization of $5.86 billion, a PE ratio of -56.55 and a beta of 1.00.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The biotechnology company reported ($0.22) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.24) by $0.02. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($0.23) earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Viking Therapeutics will post -0.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Brian Lian sold 216,130 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.83, for a total transaction of $15,308,487.90. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,304,927 shares in the company, valued at approximately $163,257,979.41. The trade was a 8.57 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Lawson Macartney sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The shares were 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 approximately $3,293,756.55. This represents a 4.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 371,117 shares of company stock worth $27,140,009 over the last three months. 4.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Viking Therapeutics

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Blue Trust Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the third quarter worth about $26,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 243 shares during the last quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the second quarter worth approximately $27,000. Stone House Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 66.7% in the third quarter. Stone House Investment Management LLC now owns 500 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Gilliland Jeter Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Viking Therapeutics in the third quarter valued at $32,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.03% of the company’s stock.

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.