Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Shares Down 0.5% – Time to Sell?

Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) shares dropped 0.5% during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $50.40 and last traded at $51.25. Approximately 1,387,435 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 69% from the average daily volume of 4,538,461 shares. The stock had previously closed at $51.51.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on VKTX. Raymond James raised their price target on Viking Therapeutics from $116.00 to $118.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. HC Wainwright boosted their target price on Viking Therapeutics from $90.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. B. Riley started coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Friday. They set a “buy” rating and a $109.00 price target on the stock. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $138.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Viking Therapeutics has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $109.73.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of $5.77 billion, a PE ratio of -55.64 and a beta of 1.00. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $64.01 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $60.70.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last issued 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 quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.23) EPS. On average, analysts expect that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -0.98 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Greg Zante sold 131,687 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.61, for a total transaction of $10,088,541.07. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 149,366 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,442,929.26. The trade was a 46.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Brian Lian sold 216,130 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.83, for a total transaction of $15,308,487.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,304,927 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $163,257,979.41. The trade was a 8.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 371,117 shares of company stock worth $27,140,009. 4.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Viking Therapeutics

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Avoro Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $294,380,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position 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 buying an additional 2,403,820 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 10,775.6% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,004,033 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $63,565,000 after buying an additional 994,801 shares in the last quarter. Hood River Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the 1st quarter worth about $55,098,000. Finally, Perpetual Ltd increased its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 55.4% in the 3rd quarter. Perpetual Ltd now owns 1,269,152 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $80,350,000 after acquiring an additional 452,344 shares in the last quarter. 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.