Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Shares Down 1.5% – What’s Next?

Shares of Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) fell 1.5% during mid-day trading on Tuesday . The stock traded as low as $49.90 and last traded at $50.74. 1,199,724 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 73% from the average session volume of 4,487,255 shares. The stock had previously closed at $51.51.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on VKTX. JPMorgan Chase & Co. assumed coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $80.00 target price for the company. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and issued a $102.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. B. Riley assumed coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $109.00 price objective for the company. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $105.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Finally, William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $106.75.

Viking Therapeutics Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of $5.49 billion, a P/E ratio of -54.60 and a beta of 0.89. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $62.15 and its 200 day moving average price is $59.35.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The biotechnology company reported ($0.22) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.24) by $0.02. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.23) earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -0.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director J Matthew Singleton sold 10,300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.50, for a total transaction of $715,850.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 9,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $660,250. This trade represents a 52.02 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Sarah Kathryn Rouan sold 11,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.89, for a total value of $889,790.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 9,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $768,455. This represents a 53.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 371,117 shares of company stock worth $27,140,009. 4.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of VKTX. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 16,619,430 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,052,176,000 after buying an additional 79,149 shares during the period. Perpetual Ltd grew its stake 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 valued at $80,350,000 after purchasing an additional 452,344 shares during the period. Braidwell LP grew its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. Braidwell LP now owns 1,156,977 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $73,248,000 after acquiring an additional 50,072 shares during the period. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 10,775.6% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,004,033 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $63,565,000 after purchasing an additional 994,801 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Westfield Capital Management Co. LP raised its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 18.3% during the 3rd quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 930,370 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $58,902,000 after purchasing an additional 143,675 shares during the period. 76.03% of the stock is currently owned by 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.