Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Stock Price Down 2.1%

Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) traded down 2.1% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $73.41 and last traded at $74.85. 661,352 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 88% from the average session volume of 5,469,581 shares. The stock had previously closed at $76.43.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VKTX has been the subject of several analyst reports. StockNews.com raised Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 25th. Raymond James increased their target price on Viking Therapeutics from $37.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 27th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $80.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Friday, March 15th. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Friday, February 23rd. Finally, Oppenheimer upped their price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $116.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Viking Therapeutics has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $112.25.

Viking Therapeutics Price Performance

The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $71.60 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $36.78. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -80.58 and a beta of 1.12.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.26) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.27) by $0.01. During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($0.25) EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -1.08 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Sarah Kathryn Rouan sold 25,000 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.05, for a total transaction of $701,250.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other Viking Therapeutics news, CEO Brian Lian sold 269,079 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.87, for a total transaction of $7,230,152.73. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,184,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $58,707,779.34. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Sarah Kathryn Rouan sold 25,000 shares of the company’s 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Viking Therapeutics

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in VKTX. FORA Capital LLC acquired a new position in Viking Therapeutics during the 1st quarter worth $6,061,000. Pittenger & Anderson Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the 1st quarter worth approximately $216,000. Harbor Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the 1st quarter worth approximately $861,000. Lewis Asset Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $1,322,000. Finally, Hollencrest Capital Management bought a new position in Viking Therapeutics during the first quarter worth $120,000. Institutional investors 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.