Vestcor Inc Acquires 4,600 Shares of Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX)

Vestcor Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) by 39.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,300 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,600 shares during the period. Vestcor Inc’s holdings in Viking Therapeutics were worth $656,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VKTX. Stone House Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 66.7% in the 3rd quarter. Stone House Investment Management LLC now owns 500 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 75.9% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 716 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 309 shares during the period. YANKCOM Partnership acquired a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the 4th quarter valued at about $33,000. Activest Wealth Management raised its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 40.2% in the 3rd quarter. Activest Wealth Management now owns 1,745 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $110,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the period. Finally, S.A. Mason LLC raised its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 20.0% in the 4th quarter. S.A. Mason LLC now owns 1,800 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $72,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the period. 76.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VKTX has been the topic of several recent research reports. Piper Sandler dropped their price target on Viking Therapeutics from $74.00 to $71.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Citigroup initiated coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, February 7th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $38.00 price target on the stock. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Maxim Group lowered their target price on Viking Therapeutics from $120.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued 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 issued 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.com, Viking Therapeutics has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $97.67.

Viking Therapeutics Trading Up 3.9 %

Shares of VKTX stock opened at $30.89 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $3.47 billion, a P/E ratio of -30.89 and a beta of 0.90. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $32.20 and a 200 day simple moving average of $48.64. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $24.41 and a 1 year high of $89.10.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 5th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.32) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.27) by ($0.05). During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($0.25) EPS. Analysts forecast that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -1.56 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Viking Therapeutics

In other Viking Therapeutics news, 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,366,570 shares in the company, valued at $101,170,867.50. The trade was a 7.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Greg Zante sold 50,309 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.75, for a total transaction of $2,150,709.75. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 165,259 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,064,822.25. This trade represents a 23.34 % 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 three months. Corporate insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

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.