Insider Selling: Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) Director Sells $995,520.00 in Stock

Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) Director J Matthew Singleton sold 16,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $62.22, for a total value of $995,520.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 9,500 shares in the company, valued at $591,090. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link.

J Matthew Singleton also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Wednesday, August 14th, J Matthew Singleton sold 20,786 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.53, for a total transaction of $1,195,818.58.

Viking Therapeutics Price Performance

NASDAQ VKTX opened at $64.76 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $54.49 and its 200-day moving average is $60.87. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -69.63 and a beta of 1.03. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. has a one year low of $8.28 and a one year high of $99.41.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.20) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.26) by $0.06. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.19) earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -0.99 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on VKTX shares. HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $90.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Raymond James increased their price objective on Viking Therapeutics from $116.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. Maxim Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Tuesday, June 4th. Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $120.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Monday, June 17th. Finally, Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Thursday, June 27th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $105.00 price objective on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Viking Therapeutics has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $111.78.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Viking Therapeutics

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of VKTX. Avoro Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the 1st quarter valued at $294,380,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 44.7% during the first 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 last quarter. Perpetual Ltd bought a new position in Viking Therapeutics during the first quarter worth about $78,586,000. Hood River Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the first quarter worth about $55,098,000. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA bought a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $12,341,000. 76.03% of the stock is owned by 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.