Senator Investment Group LP Buys New Holdings in Viking Holdings Ltd. $VIK

Senator Investment Group LP bought a new stake in Viking Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:VIK) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 475,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,920,000. Senator Investment Group LP owned approximately 0.11% of Viking at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in Viking by 32.8% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 14,048,357 shares of the company’s stock valued at $873,246,000 after buying an additional 3,471,244 shares in the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. increased its holdings in Viking by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 8,611,685 shares of the company’s stock worth $614,960,000 after purchasing an additional 136,918 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Viking during the 4th quarter worth approximately $372,297,000. Dream Peak Capital Ltd bought a new stake in Viking during the 4th quarter worth approximately $223,744,000. Finally, Artisan Partners Limited Partnership increased its holdings in Viking by 33.9% during the 3rd quarter. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership now owns 2,944,248 shares of the company’s stock worth $183,014,000 after purchasing an additional 745,509 shares in the last quarter. 98.84% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on VIK. Barclays boosted their price objective on Viking from $76.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, May 15th. Mizuho boosted their price objective on Viking from $69.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 15th. Sanford C. Bernstein began coverage on Viking in a report on Wednesday, June 3rd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $120.00 price objective for the company. Stifel Nicolaus set a $105.00 price objective on Viking in a report on Friday, May 15th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Viking from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 8th. Thirteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Viking presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $96.38.

Viking Stock Performance

VIK stock opened at $94.65 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $42.18 billion, a PE ratio of 35.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.59. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.27. The business has a 50 day moving average of $84.11 and a 200-day moving average of $76.36. Viking Holdings Ltd. has a 12-month low of $47.02 and a 12-month high of $96.54.

Viking (NYSE:VIK) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 14th. The company reported ($0.11) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of ($0.11). The company had revenue of $1.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.01 billion. Viking had a return on equity of 149.40% and a net margin of 18.00%.Viking’s quarterly revenue was up 17.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($0.24) earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Viking Holdings Ltd. will post 3.28 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Jeffrey Dash sold 46,369 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.23, for a total value of $3,720,184.87. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 420,022 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,698,365.06. This represents a 9.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

Viking Company Profile

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.