B. Riley Upgrades Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) to “Strong-Buy”

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) was upgraded by analysts at B. Riley to a “strong-buy” rating in a report released on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other analysts also recently commented on the stock. Raymond James upped their price target on shares of 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 upped their price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $90.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday. Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $138.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. began coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $80.00 price objective for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $109.73.

Viking Therapeutics Trading Up 1.9 %

Shares of Viking Therapeutics stock opened at $52.59 on Thursday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $63.73 and a 200-day simple moving average of $60.52. Viking Therapeutics has a 12-month low of $11.55 and a 12-month high of $99.41. The stock has a market cap of $5.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -56.55 and a beta of 1.00.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 previous year, the company posted ($0.23) earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Viking Therapeutics will post -0.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Viking Therapeutics

In other Viking Therapeutics news, 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 transaction of $889,790.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 9,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $768,455. This trade represents a 53.66 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Lawson Macartney sold 2,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.67, for a total transaction of $137,340.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 47,965 shares in the company, valued at $3,293,756.55. This represents a 4.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 371,117 shares of company stock valued at $27,140,009. Insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of VKTX. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted 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 worth $63,565,000 after acquiring an additional 994,801 shares during the period. Perpetual Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 55.4% during 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 during the period. Fiera Capital Corp purchased a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the 3rd quarter worth about $18,443,000. Artal Group S.A. purchased a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the 1st quarter worth about $20,817,000. Finally, Eventide Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 79.1% during the 3rd quarter. Eventide Asset Management LLC now owns 452,969 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $28,677,000 after acquiring an additional 200,000 shares during the period. 76.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.