Insider Selling: Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) Director Sells 2,000 Shares of Stock

Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) Director Lawson Macartney sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.67, for a total value of $137,340.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 47,965 shares in the company, valued at $3,293,756.55. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Down 0.5 %

VKTX stock traded down $0.37 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $68.48. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,878,237 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,505,156. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.63 billion, a P/E ratio of -73.42 and a beta of 1.00. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. has a 52-week low of $9.34 and a 52-week high of $99.41. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $64.68 and a 200-day simple moving average of $61.85.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The biotechnology company reported ($0.22) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.24) by $0.02. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.23) EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -0.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on VKTX. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $105.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday, September 12th. HC Wainwright increased their price objective on Viking Therapeutics from $90.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. StockNews.com upgraded Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Raymond James raised their price objective on Viking Therapeutics from $116.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $138.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $109.80.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Oak Ridge Investments LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the 3rd quarter worth $837,000. Nvwm LLC acquired a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the 3rd quarter worth about $999,000. Nepsis Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the 3rd quarter worth about $11,251,000. CWM LLC increased its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 70.6% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,518 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $80,000 after acquiring an additional 628 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James & Associates raised its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 43.2% during the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 441,590 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $27,957,000 after acquiring an additional 133,144 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.03% of the company’s stock.

About Viking Therapeutics

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.