Financial Counselors Inc. Purchases Shares of 45,981 Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX)

Financial Counselors Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 45,981 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,911,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Blue Trust Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the 3rd quarter worth $26,000. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. bought a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the 2nd quarter valued at about $27,000. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Viking Therapeutics by 124.6% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 438 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 243 shares in the last quarter. Gilliland Jeter Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Viking Therapeutics during the third quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, Stone House Investment Management LLC raised its position in Viking Therapeutics by 66.7% during the third quarter. Stone House Investment Management LLC now owns 500 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Viking Therapeutics

In related news, CFO Greg Zante sold 131,687 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.61, for a total value of $10,088,541.07. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 149,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,442,929.26. This represents a 46.85 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Sarah Kathryn Rouan sold 11,000 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.89, for a total value of $889,790.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 9,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $768,455. This represents a 53.66 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 371,117 shares of company stock worth $27,140,009. 4.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on VKTX. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $138.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $105.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. StockNews.com raised shares of Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $102.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. began coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $80.00 price target on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $109.73.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Down 2.9 %

Shares of Viking Therapeutics stock opened at $52.94 on Friday. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. has a 52-week low of $11.82 and a 52-week high of $99.41. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $62.77 and its 200-day moving average price is $59.83. The company has a market cap of $5.90 billion, a P/E ratio of -56.92 and a beta of 1.00.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The biotechnology company reported ($0.22) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.24) by $0.02. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned ($0.23) earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -0.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.