Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Posts Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.01 EPS

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The biotechnology company reported ($0.26) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.27) by $0.01, Briefing.com reports. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.25) earnings per share.

Viking Therapeutics Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ:VKTX opened at $69.18 on Friday. Viking Therapeutics has a one year low of $8.28 and a one year high of $99.41. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $67.61 and a 200-day moving average of $34.55.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have issued reports on VKTX. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. They set a “buy” rating and a $110.00 price target for the company. Raymond James upped their price objective on Viking Therapeutics from $37.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 27th. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Truist Financial upped their target price on Viking Therapeutics from $32.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Finally, Maxim Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Friday, March 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $112.25.

Insider Activity

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