Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Shares Gap Up to $47.39

Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) shares gapped up prior to trading on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $47.39, but opened at $50.83. Viking Therapeutics shares last traded at $49.78, with a volume of 398,647 shares trading hands.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have commented on the company. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $110.00 price objective on the stock. Oppenheimer increased their price objective on Viking Therapeutics from $116.00 to $138.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $80.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Friday, March 15th. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $105.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, StockNews.com raised Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, May 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $111.56.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Performance

The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $63.85 and a 200-day simple moving average of $51.00. The stock has a market cap of $5.41 billion, a P/E ratio of -53.53 and a beta of 1.04.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, April 24th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.26) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.27) by $0.01. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.25) earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -1.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Greg Zante sold 66,756 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.69, for a total value of $4,986,005.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 174,854 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,059,845.26. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Greg Zante sold 66,756 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.69, for a total transaction of $4,986,005.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 174,854 shares in the company, valued at $13,059,845.26. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Marianna Mancini sold 281,425 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.66, for a total value of $22,136,890.50. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 348,508 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $27,413,639.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 4.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Viking Therapeutics

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 1,557.6% during the fourth quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 371,604 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $6,916,000 after purchasing an additional 349,186 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates lifted its position in Viking Therapeutics by 100.4% during the fourth quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 137,583 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $2,560,000 after acquiring an additional 68,921 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Viking Therapeutics by 3.4% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,284,352 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $58,498,000 after acquiring an additional 171,995 shares during the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP lifted its position in Viking Therapeutics by 32.4% during the fourth quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 1,274,945 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $23,727,000 after acquiring an additional 311,681 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Eagle Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Viking Therapeutics during the fourth quarter worth approximately $4,872,000. 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.