HC Wainwright Reiterates Buy Rating for Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX)

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX)‘s stock had its “buy” rating reaffirmed by equities researchers at HC Wainwright in a note issued to investors on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $90.00 price objective on the biotechnology company’s stock. HC Wainwright’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 21.11% from the company’s current price.

VKTX has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. They set a “buy” rating and a $110.00 target price for the company. Raymond James raised their target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $37.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 27th. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Maxim Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Finally, BTIG Research raised their price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $100.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Viking Therapeutics currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $112.25.

Viking Therapeutics Price Performance

Shares of VKTX stock opened at $74.31 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $8.19 billion, a P/E ratio of -79.90 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $68.35 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $34.79. Viking Therapeutics has a one year low of $8.28 and a one year high of $99.41.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.26) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.27) by $0.01. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.25) earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Viking Therapeutics will post -1.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Viking Therapeutics

In other news, CEO Brian Lian sold 269,079 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $58,707,779.34. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, CEO Brian Lian sold 269,079 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.87, for a total value of $7,230,152.73. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,184,882 shares in the company, valued at $58,707,779.34. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Sarah Kathryn Rouan sold 25,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.05, for a total transaction of $701,250.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 329,079 shares of company stock valued at $8,769,653 over the last three months. 4.70% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Perpetual Ltd bought a new stake in Viking Therapeutics in the first quarter valued at $78,586,000. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 59.6% during the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,202,228 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $24,379,000 after buying an additional 822,156 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA bought a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the 4th quarter valued at $12,341,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 88.3% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,119,885 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $20,841,000 after buying an additional 525,296 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 194.6% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 765,320 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $8,472,000 after buying an additional 505,578 shares in the last quarter. 76.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.