Viking (NYSE:VIK) Lowered to Hold Rating by Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Viking (NYSE:VIK) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Saturday morning.

Several other research analysts have also commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on Viking from $82.00 to $78.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 20th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Viking from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $60.00 to $80.00 in a report on Monday, December 15th. Barclays increased their target price on Viking from $63.00 to $77.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 4th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Viking in a report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised Viking from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $66.00 to $78.00 in a research report on Tuesday, December 9th. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $75.21.

Viking Trading Down 4.2%

NYSE VIK opened at $68.57 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.76, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $30.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.68, a PEG ratio of 1.26 and a beta of 1.96. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $73.33 and its two-hundred day moving average is $67.72. Viking has a 12 month low of $31.79 and a 12 month high of $81.48.

Viking (NYSE:VIK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Saturday, February 14th. The company reported $0.67 earnings per share for the quarter. Viking had a net margin of 17.65% and a return on equity of 240.75%. The business had revenue of $1.72 billion during the quarter. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Viking will post 1.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Viking

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in VIK. NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its stake in Viking by 92.0% in the first quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 1,440 shares of the company’s stock valued at $57,000 after purchasing an additional 690 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in Viking by 74.6% during the 2nd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,467,311 shares of the company’s stock worth $78,193,000 after acquiring an additional 626,973 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in Viking by 28.7% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 47,710 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,543,000 after acquiring an additional 10,637 shares in the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers lifted its position in Viking by 3,277.6% in the second quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 216,845 shares of the company’s stock valued at $11,556,000 after acquiring an additional 210,425 shares during the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in Viking by 0.7% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 881,213 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,960,000 after acquiring an additional 6,166 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.84% of the company’s stock.

About Viking

Viking Holdings Ltd engages in the passenger shipping and other forms of passenger transport in North America, the United Kingdom, and internationally. It operates through River and Ocean segments. The company also operates as a tour entrepreneur for passengers and related activities in tourism. As of December 31, 2023, it operated a fleet of 92 ships, including 81 river vessels comprising 58 Longships, 10 smaller classes based on the Longship design, 11 other river vessels, and 1 river vessel charter and the Viking Mississippi; 9 ocean ships; and 2 expedition ships.