Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) from a strong sell rating to a sell rating in a report released on Saturday morning,Wall Street Zen reports.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on the stock. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $83.00 to $87.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on Viking Therapeutics from $75.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, August 11th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Tuesday, September 22nd. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their price target on Viking Therapeutics from $107.00 to $114.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Viking Therapeutics has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $99.67.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Down 7.1%

Shares of Viking Therapeutics stock opened at $33.03 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.85 billion, a P/E ratio of -7.09 and a beta of 0.69. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $33.76 and a 200 day moving average price of $33.57. Viking Therapeutics has a 52 week low of $25.04 and a 52 week high of $43.15.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The biotechnology company reported ($1.10) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($1.21) by $0.11. The company’s revenue was up .0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.58) EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Viking Therapeutics will post -4.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Viking Therapeutics news, CEO Brian Lian sold 148,517 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.32, for a total transaction of $4,948,586.44. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,572,441 shares in the company, valued at approximately $85,713,734.12. The trade was a 5.46% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CFO Greg Zante sold 21,217 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.47, for a total transaction of $710,132.99. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 212,204 shares in the company, valued at $7,102,467.88. This trade represents a 9.09% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 187,951 shares of company stock valued at $6,268,442. 5.30% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Viking Therapeutics

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in VKTX. MCF Advisors LLC grew its position in Viking Therapeutics by 59,900.0% during the 2nd quarter. MCF Advisors LLC now owns 2,400 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $94,000 after purchasing an additional 2,396 shares during the period. WINTON GROUP Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the 2nd quarter valued at about $3,532,000. Engineers Gate Manager LP acquired a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,823,000. RFG Advisory LLC boosted its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 0.3% in the second quarter. RFG Advisory LLC now owns 142,790 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $5,570,000 after buying an additional 463 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 3.6% in the second quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 16,533 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $645,000 after buying an additional 577 shares during the last quarter. 76.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Viking Therapeutics

Viking Therapeutics, Inc is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing therapies for metabolic and endocrine disorders. The company’s research programs target conditions including obesity, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), dyslipidemia and other disorders involving hormone regulation and metabolism.

Viking’s lead program is VK2735, an investigational dual agonist of the glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) receptors being developed in injectable and oral formulations for obesity and related metabolic conditions.