Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Given Outperform Rating at Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer reaffirmed their outperform rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) in a report published on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a $138.00 price objective on the biotechnology company’s stock.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on VKTX. Raymond James increased their price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $116.00 to $118.00 and gave the company a strong-buy rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Morgan Stanley reissued an overweight rating and issued a $105.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. HC Wainwright reissued a buy rating and issued a $90.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Truist Financial reissued a buy rating and issued a $120.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Monday, June 17th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Viking Therapeutics to a sell rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $108.60.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Down 1.1 %

NASDAQ:VKTX opened at $61.63 on Wednesday. Viking Therapeutics has a fifty-two week low of $8.28 and a fifty-two week high of $99.41. The stock has a market cap of $6.80 billion, a PE ratio of -66.27 and a beta of 1.00. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $60.02 and its 200-day simple moving average is $62.84.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.20) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.26) by $0.06. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($0.19) EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Viking Therapeutics will post -1 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Viking Therapeutics

In other news, CEO Brian Lian sold 115,859 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.58, for a total transaction of $6,671,161.22. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,354,927 shares in the company, valued at approximately $135,596,696.66. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Brian Lian sold 115,859 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.58, for a total transaction of $6,671,161.22. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,354,927 shares in the company, valued at approximately $135,596,696.66. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director J Matthew Singleton sold 5,700 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.72, for a total transaction of $397,404.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 9,500 shares in the company, valued at $662,340. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 516,671 shares of company stock worth $33,810,813 in the last three months. Company insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV purchased a new position in Viking Therapeutics in the first quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Lindbrook Capital LLC raised its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 370.7% in the first quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 353 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 278 shares during the period. LifeSteps Financial Inc. purchased a new position in Viking Therapeutics in the first quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. purchased a new position in Viking Therapeutics in the second quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 140.8% in the second quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 802 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 469 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.03% of the company’s stock.

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.