Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Receives "Buy" Rating from HC Wainwright

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "buy" rating reissued by equities research analysts at HC Wainwright in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $90.00 price objective on the biotechnology company's stock. HC Wainwright's price objective indicates a potential upside of 45.75% from the stock's previous close.

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Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the company. Stifel Nicolaus restated a "buy" rating and issued a $80.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Maxim Group restated a "buy" rating and issued a $120.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Truist Financial reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $120.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, May 16th. William Blair reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Finally, BTIG Research upped their price objective on Viking Therapeutics from $100.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Viking Therapeutics currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $112.38.

Get Our Latest Report on Viking Therapeutics

Viking Therapeutics Trading Down 0.8 %

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Shares of NASDAQ:VKTX traded down $0.52 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $61.75. 1,115,532 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 4,970,656. The company has a market cap of $6.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -67.17 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $71.44 and a 200-day moving average price of $46.58. Viking Therapeutics has a 52 week low of $8.28 and a 52 week high of $99.41.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.26) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.27) by $0.01. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.25) earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Viking Therapeutics will post -1.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Viking Therapeutics

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In other Viking Therapeutics news, CFO Greg Zante sold 66,756 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.69, for a total value of $4,986,005.64. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 174,854 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $13,059,845.26. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, COO Marianna Mancini sold 281,425 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.66, for a total transaction of $22,136,890.50. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 348,508 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $27,413,639.28. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Greg Zante sold 66,756 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.69, for a total value of $4,986,005.64. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 174,854 shares of the company's stock, valued at $13,059,845.26. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 4.70% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Viking Therapeutics

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Rafferty Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 63.6% during the 3rd quarter. Rafferty Asset Management LLC now owns 560,180 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $6,201,000 after buying an additional 217,827 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 1,557.6% during the 4th quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 371,604 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $6,916,000 after buying an additional 349,186 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates lifted its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 100.4% during the 4th quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 137,583 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $2,560,000 after buying an additional 68,921 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,284,352 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $58,498,000 after buying an additional 171,995 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Aigen Investment Management LP bought a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the 3rd quarter worth $148,000. 76.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.

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