Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Research Coverage Started at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) in a research report sent to investors on Thursday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage issued an overweight rating and a $105.00 price target on the biotechnology company’s stock.

VKTX has been the subject of several other reports. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a buy rating and set a $90.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Monday, June 24th. 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. Maxim Group reiterated a buy rating and set a $120.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Tuesday, June 4th. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Viking Therapeutics from $116.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock an outperform rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, BTIG Research boosted their price objective on Viking Therapeutics from $100.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $111.56.

Viking Therapeutics Trading Up 4.4 %

NASDAQ:VKTX opened at $53.01 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.85 billion, a PE ratio of -57.00 and a beta of 1.04. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $63.37 and a 200-day moving average of $51.48. Viking Therapeutics has a 52 week low of $8.28 and a 52 week high of $99.41.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last posted its 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 in the prior year, the business earned ($0.25) EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Viking Therapeutics will post -1.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Viking Therapeutics

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of VKTX. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 44.7% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,785,724 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $638,429,000 after purchasing an additional 2,403,820 shares during the period. Avoro Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Viking Therapeutics during the 1st quarter valued at $294,380,000. American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 59.6% during the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,202,228 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $24,379,000 after purchasing an additional 822,156 shares during the period. Wasatch Advisors LP raised its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 32.4% during the 4th quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 1,274,945 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $23,727,000 after purchasing an additional 311,681 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 88.3% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,119,885 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $20,841,000 after purchasing an additional 525,296 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.