Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) CEO Brian Lian Sells 194,490 Shares

Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) CEO Brian Lian sold 194,490 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of Viking Therapeutics stock traded down $0.36 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $42.53. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 2,734,366 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,071,149. The stock has a market cap of $4.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -45.73 and a beta of 0.95. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $18.14 and a twelve month high of $99.41. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $51.93 and a 200-day moving average of $56.95.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The biotechnology company reported ($0.22) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.24) by $0.02. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted ($0.23) EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -0.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Viking Therapeutics

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of 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 worth $63,565,000 after buying an additional 994,801 shares during the period. Perpetual Ltd boosted its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 452,344 shares during the period. Fiera Capital Corp acquired a new position in Viking Therapeutics in the 3rd quarter valued at about $18,443,000. Eventide Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 79.1% during the third quarter. Eventide Asset Management LLC now owns 452,969 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $28,677,000 after purchasing an additional 200,000 shares during the period. Finally, Nepsis Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the third quarter worth about $11,251,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.03% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VKTX has been the subject of a number of research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. assumed coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $80.00 target price for the company. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $102.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. B. Riley started coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $109.00 price target for the company. Finally, Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $138.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. 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 stock has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $106.75.

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.