Pier Capital LLC Cuts Stake in Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX)

Pier Capital LLC decreased its stake in Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) by 35.5% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 57,504 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after selling 31,643 shares during the quarter. Pier Capital LLC’s holdings in Viking Therapeutics were worth $2,314,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in Viking Therapeutics by 75.9% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 716 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 309 shares in the last quarter. Stone House Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 66.7% during the third quarter. Stone House Investment Management LLC now owns 500 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. YANKCOM Partnership acquired a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the fourth quarter worth $33,000. S.A. Mason LLC boosted its position in Viking Therapeutics by 20.0% in the 4th quarter. S.A. Mason LLC now owns 1,800 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $72,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wolff Wiese Magana LLC purchased a new position in Viking Therapeutics in the fourth quarter valued at about $75,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Viking Therapeutics

In other Viking Therapeutics news, CEO Brian Lian sold 194,490 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.75, for a total transaction of $8,314,447.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,366,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $101,170,867.50. This trade represents a 7.59 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Greg Zante sold 50,309 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.75, for a total value of $2,150,709.75. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 165,259 shares in the company, valued at $7,064,822.25. This represents a 23.34 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 299,014 shares of company stock worth $12,782,849 over the last ninety days. 4.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on VKTX shares. B. Riley reissued a “buy” rating and set a $96.00 price target (down previously from $109.00) on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Friday, February 7th. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $102.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. Citigroup started coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Friday, February 7th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $38.00 price target on the stock. Raymond James boosted their price objective on Viking Therapeutics from $122.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their price objective on Viking Therapeutics from $74.00 to $71.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $97.67.

Viking Therapeutics Trading Up 1.1 %

VKTX opened at $29.28 on Tuesday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $30.84 and its 200-day moving average is $47.33. The stock has a market cap of $3.29 billion, a PE ratio of -29.28 and a beta of 0.90. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $24.41 and a twelve month high of $89.10.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.32) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.27) by ($0.05). During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned ($0.25) earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -1.56 EPS for the current year.

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.