Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Shares Down 0.7%

Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) shares traded down 0.7% on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $65.50 and last traded at $66.46. 895,707 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 85% from the average session volume of 5,913,449 shares. The stock had previously closed at $66.95.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on VKTX. Raymond James boosted their price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $37.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 27th. BTIG Research upped their target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $100.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and set a $90.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Oppenheimer upped their price objective on Viking Therapeutics from $116.00 to $138.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $80.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, March 15th. One equities research 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 a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $112.25.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $7.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -72.24 and a beta of 1.05. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $62.55 and a 200 day moving average price of $32.04.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 7th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.25) EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.25). During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.26) EPS. Research analysts predict that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -1.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Viking Therapeutics

In other news, Director Sarah Kathryn Rouan sold 25,000 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.05, for a total transaction of $701,250.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, Director Sarah Kathryn Rouan sold 25,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.05, for a total value of $701,250.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Brian Lian sold 269,079 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,184,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $58,707,779.34. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 359,079 shares of company stock valued at $9,461,153. Insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Viking Therapeutics

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 2,039.4% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,280,944 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $87,928,000 after purchasing an additional 5,034,102 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. boosted its position in Viking Therapeutics by 237.9% during the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 6,894,923 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $111,767,000 after acquiring an additional 4,854,645 shares during the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its position in Viking Therapeutics by 21,586.9% during the second quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 2,961,561 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $48,007,000 after acquiring an additional 2,947,905 shares during the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP purchased a new stake in Viking Therapeutics in the 1st quarter worth approximately $28,396,000. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP acquired a new position in Viking Therapeutics in the 3rd quarter valued at $3,638,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.03% of the company’s stock.

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.