Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Buys 6,415 Shares of Viking Therapeutics, Inc. $VKTX

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its stake in Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) by 16.2% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 45,944 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,415 shares during the quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in Viking Therapeutics were worth $1,218,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Quarry LP lifted its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 1,621.4% in the first quarter. Quarry LP now owns 1,205 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 1,135 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 33.4% in the second quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 1,818 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $48,000 after acquiring an additional 455 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 571.4% in the second quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 2,041 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $54,000 after acquiring an additional 1,737 shares during the last quarter. JNBA Financial Advisors bought a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the first quarter worth about $56,000. Finally, Flaharty Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the first quarter worth about $56,000. Institutional investors own 76.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently commented on VKTX shares. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $102.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Monday, September 29th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Raymond James Financial dropped their price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $125.00 to $122.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 24th. BTIG Research reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $125.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Monday, September 22nd. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $31.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $86.42.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Performance

Viking Therapeutics stock opened at $33.56 on Monday. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. has a 52-week low of $18.92 and a 52-week high of $81.73. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $29.29 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $28.09. The firm has a market cap of $3.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -21.93 and a beta of 0.64.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The biotechnology company reported ($0.58) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.44) by ($0.14). During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.20) EPS. The business’s revenue was up NaN% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -1.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Viking Therapeutics 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.