Activest Wealth Management Increases Stock Holdings in Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX)

Activest Wealth Management boosted its holdings in Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) by 40.2% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 1,745 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after buying an additional 500 shares during the quarter. Activest Wealth Management’s holdings in Viking Therapeutics were worth $110,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Signaturefd LLC lifted its position in Viking Therapeutics by 16.2% during the third quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,351 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $86,000 after purchasing an additional 188 shares during the last quarter. Keudell Morrison Wealth Management raised its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 5.9% during the 3rd quarter. Keudell Morrison Wealth Management now owns 4,306 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $273,000 after buying an additional 241 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in Viking Therapeutics by 124.6% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 438 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 243 shares in the last quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV increased its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 84.3% in the third quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 553 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 253 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Los Angeles Capital Management LLC raised its position in Viking Therapeutics by 3.1% during the second quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 12,278 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $651,000 after purchasing an additional 372 shares in the last quarter. 76.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Viking Therapeutics

In other news, Director Lawson Macartney sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.67, for a total value of $137,340.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 47,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,293,756.55. This represents a 4.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Sarah Kathryn Rouan sold 11,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.89, for a total value of $889,790.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 9,500 shares in the company, valued at approximately $768,455. This represents a 53.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 371,117 shares of company stock worth $27,140,009 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VKTX has been the topic of a number of research reports. StockNews.com raised Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. HC Wainwright lifted their price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $90.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 4th. Raymond James lifted their target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $116.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $105.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Finally, William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $109.80.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Performance

Viking Therapeutics stock traded down $0.32 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $51.21. The stock had a trading volume of 257,456 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,529,475. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $64.24 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $60.76. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. has a one year low of $11.21 and a one year high of $99.41.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The biotechnology company reported ($0.22) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.24) by $0.02. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.23) EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -0.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Viking Therapeutics 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.