Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) Holdings Raised by Royce & Associates LP

Royce & Associates LP lifted its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) by 464.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 75,261 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 61,927 shares during the quarter. Royce & Associates LP owned about 0.07% of Viking Therapeutics worth $3,029,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Stone House Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 66.7% during the third quarter. Stone House Investment Management LLC now owns 500 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. grew its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 75.9% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 716 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 309 shares during the period. YANKCOM Partnership acquired a new position in Viking Therapeutics during the fourth quarter worth about $33,000. Activest Wealth Management grew its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 40.2% during the third quarter. Activest Wealth Management now owns 1,745 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $110,000 after acquiring an additional 500 shares during the period. Finally, S.A. Mason LLC grew its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 20.0% during the fourth quarter. S.A. Mason LLC now owns 1,800 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $72,000 after acquiring an additional 300 shares during the period. 76.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Scotiabank assumed coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a report on Thursday, February 13th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $102.00 target price on the stock. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on Viking Therapeutics from $74.00 to $71.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 6th. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $102.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, Maxim Group dropped their price target on Viking Therapeutics from $120.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $97.67.

Viking Therapeutics Trading Up 2.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ VKTX opened at $30.07 on Thursday. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. has a one year low of $24.41 and a one year high of $89.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.38 billion, a PE ratio of -30.07 and a beta of 0.90. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $31.49 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $48.04.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.32) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.27) by ($0.05). During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.25) earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -1.56 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Greg Zante sold 50,309 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.75, for a total transaction of $2,150,709.75. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 165,259 shares in the company, valued at $7,064,822.25. The trade was a 23.34 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Brian Lian sold 194,490 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.75, for a total value of $8,314,447.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,366,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $101,170,867.50. This represents a 7.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 299,014 shares of company stock worth $12,782,849 in the last three months. 4.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.