Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Shares Down 3.4% – What’s Next?

Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) shares fell 3.4% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The company traded as low as $28.26 and last traded at $28.28. 556,478 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 86% from the average session volume of 3,965,969 shares. The stock had previously closed at $29.28.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $74.00 to $71.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Raymond James boosted their price target on Viking Therapeutics from $122.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Scotiabank assumed coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $102.00 price objective on the stock. Maxim Group reduced their target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $120.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, B. Riley restated a “buy” rating and issued a $96.00 price target (down from $109.00) on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Friday, February 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $97.67.

Viking Therapeutics Trading Down 4.6 %

The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $30.84 and its 200 day moving average price is $47.33. The company has a market cap of $3.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -27.97 and a beta of 0.90.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.32) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.27) by ($0.05). During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.25) EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -1.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Brian Lian sold 194,490 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.75, for a total value of $8,314,447.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,366,570 shares in the company, valued at approximately $101,170,867.50. The trade was a 7.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Greg Zante sold 50,309 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.75, for a total value of $2,150,709.75. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now 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 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 owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Viking Therapeutics

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. PKO Investment Management Joint Stock Co acquired a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the 4th quarter worth approximately $604,000. Lighthouse Financial LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the 4th quarter valued at $563,000. United Advisor Group LLC acquired a new position in Viking Therapeutics during the 4th quarter valued at about $234,000. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio grew its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 47,547 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,913,000 after purchasing an additional 2,295 shares during the period. Finally, Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC bought a new position in Viking Therapeutics during the fourth quarter worth about $170,000. 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.