Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) Shares Purchased by Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.

Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. lifted its stake in Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) by 18.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 121,062 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 18,738 shares during the period. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Viking Therapeutics were worth $4,872,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 9.8% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 462,964 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $18,630,000 after purchasing an additional 41,400 shares during the period. IFP Advisors Inc lifted its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 107.5% in the fourth quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 42,124 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $1,697,000 after purchasing an additional 21,825 shares during the period. TCW Group Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the fourth quarter valued at about $2,481,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB lifted its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 183,400 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $7,380,000 after purchasing an additional 3,400 shares during the period. Finally, HighMark Wealth Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 42.0% in the fourth quarter. HighMark Wealth Management LLC now owns 4,260 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $171,000 after purchasing an additional 1,260 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Viking Therapeutics

In related news, CFO Greg Zante sold 50,309 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.75, for a total value 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 approximately $7,064,822.25. The trade was a 23.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Brian Lian sold 194,490 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.75, for a total transaction of $8,314,447.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,366,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $101,170,867.50. The trade was 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 over the last ninety days. 4.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently commented on VKTX shares. Scotiabank started coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $102.00 price objective for the company. Piper Sandler cut their target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $74.00 to $71.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and set a $102.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, Maxim Group cut their target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $120.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Viking Therapeutics presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $97.29.

Viking Therapeutics Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VKTX opened at $28.87 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $3.22 billion, a PE ratio of -28.87 and a beta of 0.90. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. has a 12 month low of $27.20 and a 12 month high of $96.74. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $34.82 and a 200-day simple moving average of $51.15.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 last year, the firm posted ($0.25) EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -1.56 EPS for the current year.

Viking Therapeutics 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.