Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Trading 23.9% Higher on Analyst Upgrade

Shares of Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) rose 23.9% on Tuesday after Oppenheimer raised their price target on the stock from $116.00 to $138.00. Oppenheimer currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Viking Therapeutics traded as high as $89.10 and last traded at $85.75. Approximately 11,836,020 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 83% from the average daily volume of 6,459,629 shares. The stock had previously closed at $69.19.

VKTX has been the topic of several other reports. Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $32.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Raymond James lifted their price target on Viking Therapeutics from $37.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 27th. BTIG Research boosted their target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $100.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, February 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $101.89.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Viking Therapeutics news, CEO Brian Lian sold 269,079 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.87, for a total value of $7,230,152.73. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,184,882 shares in the company, valued at approximately $58,707,779.34. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, Director Sarah Kathryn Rouan sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.05, for a total transaction of $691,500.00. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Brian Lian sold 269,079 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.87, for a total value of $7,230,152.73. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,184,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $58,707,779.34. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 374,079 shares of company stock worth $9,729,653 in the last 90 days. 4.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Viking Therapeutics

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in VKTX. Retirement Group LLC raised its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 75.0% during the 2nd quarter. Retirement Group LLC now owns 2,100 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $34,000 after acquiring an additional 900 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC bought a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the second quarter worth $36,000. Wetzel Investment Advisors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the fourth quarter worth $37,000. Engineers Gate Manager LP bought a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the first quarter worth $37,000. Finally, US Bancorp DE grew its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 66.5% in the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 2,346 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $44,000 after purchasing an additional 937 shares in the last quarter. 76.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Up 3.1 %

The company has a 50 day moving average price of $48.96 and a 200-day moving average price of $26.31.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.25) earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.25). During the same period last year, the business posted ($0.26) earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -1.1 EPS for the current year.

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.