Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Reaches New 12-Month Low – Here’s Why

Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX)’s stock price hit a new 52-week low during trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as low as $29.30 and last traded at $29.52, with a volume of 651898 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $30.17.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Raymond James lifted their price objective on Viking Therapeutics from $122.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $102.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Citigroup started coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Friday. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $38.00 target price on the stock. Maxim Group decreased their price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $120.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Finally, William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, twelve have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Viking Therapeutics presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $96.92.

Viking Therapeutics Trading Down 1.3 %

The company has a market cap of $3.32 billion, a P/E ratio of -29.82 and a beta of 0.90. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $39.63 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $53.68.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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 anticipate that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -1.41 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Greg Zante sold 50,309 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.75, for a total transaction of $2,150,709.75. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Marianna Mancini sold 54,215 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 value of $2,317,691.25. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 374,134 shares in the company, valued at $15,994,228.50. This represents a 12.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 299,014 shares of company stock valued at $12,782,849 over the last 90 days. 4.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Viking Therapeutics

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of VKTX. Oak Ridge Investments LLC acquired a new position in Viking Therapeutics during the 3rd quarter valued at about $837,000. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. grew its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 43.5% in the 3rd quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 102,324 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $6,478,000 after buying an additional 31,011 shares in the last quarter. Nvwm LLC bought a new position in Viking Therapeutics in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $999,000. Chartwell Investment Partners LLC increased its position in Viking Therapeutics by 88.0% in the 3rd quarter. Chartwell Investment Partners LLC now owns 36,666 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $2,322,000 after acquiring an additional 17,159 shares during the period. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp boosted its position in Viking Therapeutics by 92.1% during the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 131,348 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $8,316,000 after acquiring an additional 62,956 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 76.03% of the company’s stock.

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.