Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Coverage Initiated at Morgan Stanley

Equities researchers at Morgan Stanley began coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) in a research note issued on Thursday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage set an “overweight” rating and a $105.00 price target on the biotechnology company’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price target suggests a potential upside of 98.08% from the company’s current price.

Several other research firms also recently issued reports on VKTX. StockNews.com upgraded Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, May 31st. Maxim Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Tuesday, June 4th. Raymond James reiterated a “strong-buy” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Tuesday, June 4th. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and set a $90.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Monday, June 24th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. They set a “buy” rating and a $110.00 price objective for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $111.56.

Viking Therapeutics Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VKTX opened at $53.01 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $63.37 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $51.25. Viking Therapeutics has a one year low of $8.28 and a one year high of $99.41. The company has a market capitalization of $5.85 billion, a P/E ratio of -57.00 and a beta of 1.04.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Viking Therapeutics

In other Viking Therapeutics news, CFO Greg Zante sold 66,756 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,059,845.26. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Viking Therapeutics news, CFO Greg Zante sold 66,756 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,059,845.26. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Marianna Mancini sold 281,425 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.66, for a total value of $22,136,890.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 348,508 shares in the company, valued at $27,413,639.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Viking Therapeutics

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Cetera Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $239,000. Cetera Investment Advisers bought a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $1,889,000. Artal Group S.A. bought a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $20,817,000. Comerica Bank grew its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 28,154.0% in the 1st quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 91,543 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $7,507,000 after purchasing an additional 91,219 shares during the period. Finally, Castleark Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $4,566,000. 76.03% of the stock is currently owned by 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.