Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) Receives $112.38 Average Target Price from Brokerages

Shares of Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) have been assigned an average rating of “Buy” from the nine brokerages that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $112.38.

VKTX has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $80.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Raymond James raised Viking Therapeutics from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $115.00 to $116.00 in a research note on Thursday, May 16th. StockNews.com raised Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Maxim Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, March 15th.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Performance

NASDAQ:VKTX opened at $62.26 on Monday. Viking Therapeutics has a one year low of $8.28 and a one year high of $99.41. The stock has a market cap of $6.87 billion, a PE ratio of -66.95 and a beta of 1.12. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $71.58 and a 200 day moving average price of $45.73.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.26) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.27) by $0.01. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.25) earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that Viking Therapeutics will post -1.08 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Greg Zante sold 66,756 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 174,854 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,059,845.26. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, CFO Greg Zante sold 66,756 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction 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 directly owns 174,854 shares in the company, valued at $13,059,845.26. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, COO Marianna Mancini sold 281,425 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 348,508 shares of the company’s stock, 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 Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Cetera Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Viking Therapeutics in the first quarter valued at $239,000. Cetera Investment Advisers acquired a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the 1st quarter worth about $1,889,000. Artal Group S.A. acquired a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the 1st quarter worth about $20,817,000. Comerica Bank boosted its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 28,154.0% during the 1st quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 91,543 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $7,507,000 after acquiring an additional 91,219 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Castleark Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the 1st quarter worth about $4,566,000. 76.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.