Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Shares Up 1.5% – Time to Buy?

Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX)’s stock price shot up 1.5% on Monday . The company traded as high as $29.55 and last traded at $29.40. 699,430 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 82% from the average session volume of 3,958,267 shares. The stock had previously closed at $28.95.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on VKTX. Maxim Group cut their price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $120.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Raymond James lifted their price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $122.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 6th. B. Riley reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $96.00 price target (down from $109.00) on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Scotiabank began coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $102.00 price objective for the company. Finally, HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $102.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $97.67.

Viking Therapeutics Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $3.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -27.98 and a beta of 0.90. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $30.73 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $47.14.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.32) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.27) by ($0.05). During the same period in the prior year, the business posted ($0.25) EPS. On average, research analysts predict that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -1.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Viking Therapeutics news, COO Marianna Mancini sold 54,215 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.75, for a total transaction of $2,317,691.25. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 374,134 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,994,228.50. This trade represents a 12.66 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Brian Lian sold 194,490 shares of the business’s 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 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 trade represents a 7.59 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 299,014 shares of company stock valued at $12,782,849 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of VKTX. PKO Investment Management Joint Stock Co purchased a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the 4th quarter valued at about $604,000. Lighthouse Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Viking Therapeutics in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $563,000. United Advisor Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $234,000. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio raised its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 5.1% during the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 47,547 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,913,000 after buying an additional 2,295 shares during the period. Finally, Mpwm Advisory Solutions LLC purchased a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $170,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.03% of the company’s stock.

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.