Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Shares Gap Up After Analyst Upgrade

Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX)’s stock price gapped up prior to trading on Tuesday after Oppenheimer raised their price target on the stock from $116.00 to $138.00. The stock had previously closed at $69.19, but opened at $77.51. Oppenheimer currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Viking Therapeutics shares last traded at $81.71, with a volume of 5,346,560 shares.

A number of other research firms have also weighed in on VKTX. BTIG Research lifted their price objective on Viking Therapeutics from $100.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $80.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, March 15th. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Raymond James lifted their price objective on Viking Therapeutics from $37.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 27th. Finally, Truist Financial lifted their price objective on Viking Therapeutics from $32.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Viking Therapeutics has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $101.89.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Brian Lian sold 269,079 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.87, for a total value of $7,230,152.73. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,184,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $58,707,779.34. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, CFO Greg Zante sold 15,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, January 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.90, for a total value of $268,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 180,730 shares in the company, valued at $3,235,067. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Brian Lian sold 269,079 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.87, for a total value of $7,230,152.73. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,184,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $58,707,779.34. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 374,079 shares of company stock worth $9,729,653. Insiders own 4.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 2,039.4% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,280,944 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $87,928,000 after purchasing an additional 5,034,102 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. lifted its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 237.9% during the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 6,894,923 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $111,767,000 after purchasing an additional 4,854,645 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 21,586.9% during the second quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 2,961,561 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $48,007,000 after purchasing an additional 2,947,905 shares in the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP acquired a new position in Viking Therapeutics during the first quarter worth $28,396,000. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP acquired a new position in Viking Therapeutics during the third quarter worth $3,638,000. 76.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Performance

The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $48.96 and a 200 day simple moving average of $26.31.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 7th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.25) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of ($0.25). During the same period last year, the firm earned ($0.26) earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -1.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.