Senator Investment Group LP Takes Position in Viking Holdings Ltd. $VIK

Senator Investment Group LP bought a new stake in Viking Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:VIK) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor bought 475,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,920,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Panagora Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Viking by 2,738.2% in the fourth quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 195,265 shares of the company’s stock valued at $13,944,000 after acquiring an additional 188,385 shares in the last quarter. MML Investors Services LLC lifted its stake in Viking by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 10,992 shares of the company’s stock valued at $785,000 after purchasing an additional 415 shares during the last quarter. Mariner LLC lifted its stake in Viking by 641.6% in the fourth quarter. Mariner LLC now owns 120,835 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,636,000 after purchasing an additional 104,542 shares during the last quarter. NFJ Investment Group LLC purchased a new position in Viking in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $4,047,000. Finally, Fieldview Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in Viking in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,458,000. 98.84% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently commented on the company. Mizuho upped their price objective on Viking from $69.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Viking from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Monday, May 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price objective on Viking from $84.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Loop Capital assumed coverage on Viking in a research note on Monday, June 1st. They issued a “buy” rating and a $108.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Viking from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $79.00 to $109.00 in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $96.38.

Insider Activity

In other Viking news, EVP Jeffrey Dash sold 46,369 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.23, for a total transaction of $3,720,184.87. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 420,022 shares in the company, valued at $33,698,365.06. This represents a 9.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

Viking Trading Up 2.6%

NYSE:VIK opened at $94.65 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $42.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.19, a P/E/G ratio of 1.33 and a beta of 1.59. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $84.11 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $76.36. Viking Holdings Ltd. has a 1 year low of $47.02 and a 1 year high of $96.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.27, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.76.

Viking (NYSE:VIK) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 14th. The company reported ($0.11) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of ($0.11). The firm had revenue of $1.05 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.01 billion. Viking had a return on equity of 149.40% and a net margin of 18.00%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 17.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted ($0.24) earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Viking Holdings Ltd. will post 3.28 EPS for the current year.

Viking Company Profile

Viking Holdings Ltd engages in the passenger shipping and other forms of passenger transport in North America, the United Kingdom, and internationally. It operates through River and Ocean segments. The company also operates as a tour entrepreneur for passengers and related activities in tourism. As of December 31, 2023, it operated a fleet of 92 ships, including 81 river vessels comprising 58 Longships, 10 smaller classes based on the Longship design, 11 other river vessels, and 1 river vessel charter and the Viking Mississippi; 9 ocean ships; and 2 expedition ships.