Insider Selling: Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) CFO Sells 50,309 Shares of Stock

Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) CFO Greg Zante sold 50,309 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.75, for a total value of $2,150,709.75. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 165,259 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,064,822.25. This represents a 23.34 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Greg Zante also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, October 28th, Greg Zante sold 131,687 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.61, for a total transaction of $10,088,541.07.

Viking Therapeutics Trading Down 2.0 %

VKTX stock opened at $41.66 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $51.30 and its 200 day moving average price is $56.87. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $18.14 and a 52 week high of $99.41. The company has a market cap of $4.64 billion, a P/E ratio of -44.80 and a beta of 0.95.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The biotechnology company reported ($0.22) EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.24) by $0.02. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.23) EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -0.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Viking Therapeutics

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 10,775.6% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,004,033 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $63,565,000 after buying an additional 994,801 shares during the last quarter. Perpetual Ltd raised its position in Viking Therapeutics by 55.4% during the third quarter. Perpetual Ltd now owns 1,269,152 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $80,350,000 after acquiring an additional 452,344 shares during the last quarter. Fiera Capital Corp purchased a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the third quarter valued at about $18,443,000. Eventide Asset Management LLC grew its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 79.1% in the third quarter. Eventide Asset Management LLC now owns 452,969 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $28,677,000 after purchasing an additional 200,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nepsis Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $11,251,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have commented on VKTX shares. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $105.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $138.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. started coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $80.00 price target for the company. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Viking Therapeutics presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $106.75.

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.