Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Stock Price Up 0.5% – Should You Buy?

Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX)’s share price rose 0.5% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $33.24 and last traded at $32.47. Approximately 1,496,683 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 63% from the average daily volume of 4,019,360 shares. The stock had previously closed at $32.29.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have weighed in on VKTX shares. Piper Sandler lowered their price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $74.00 to $71.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Scotiabank started coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a report on Thursday, February 13th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $102.00 price target on the stock. Citigroup initiated coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Friday, February 7th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $38.00 price objective for the company. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, B. Riley restated a “buy” rating and set a $96.00 price target (down from $109.00) on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Friday, February 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, thirteen have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $97.29.

Viking Therapeutics Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $3.80 billion, a P/E ratio of -34.07 and a beta of 0.90. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $36.28 and its 200-day moving average is $52.07.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Viking Therapeutics news, CEO Brian Lian sold 194,490 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 2,366,570 shares in the company, valued at $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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Greg Zante sold 50,309 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.75, for a total value of $2,150,709.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 165,259 shares in the company, valued at $7,064,822.25. The trade was a 23.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 299,014 shares of company stock valued at $12,782,849 over the last 90 days. 4.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of VKTX. CWM LLC increased its position in Viking Therapeutics by 34.1% during the third quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,036 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $129,000 after acquiring an additional 518 shares during the period. Creative Planning increased its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 7.6% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 16,955 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,074,000 after purchasing an additional 1,202 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the third quarter valued at about $26,000. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the third quarter valued at about $218,000. Finally, Signaturefd LLC grew its position in Viking Therapeutics by 16.2% during the third quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,351 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $86,000 after buying an additional 188 shares in the last quarter. 76.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.