Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Shares Up 23.9% Following Analyst Upgrade

Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX)’s stock price shot up 23.9% during trading 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. 11,836,020 shares were traded during mid-day trading, an increase of 83% from the average session volume of 6,459,629 shares. The stock had previously closed at $69.19.

A number of other equities analysts also recently weighed in on VKTX. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $90.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Tuesday. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $80.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, March 15th. StockNews.com raised shares of Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, February 9th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. They set a “buy” rating and a $110.00 price target for the company. Finally, Raymond James boosted their price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $37.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Viking Therapeutics has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $101.89.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Brian Lian sold 269,079 shares of the company’s 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,184,882 shares in the company, valued at $58,707,779.34. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CEO Brian Lian sold 269,079 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.87, for a total transaction 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 $58,707,779.34. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Greg Zante sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.90, for a total transaction of $268,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 180,730 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,235,067. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 374,079 shares of company stock worth $9,729,653 over the last quarter. 4.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Viking Therapeutics

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in VKTX. Swiss National Bank raised its position in Viking Therapeutics by 7.2% during the first quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 166,500 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $500,000 after acquiring an additional 11,200 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 20.5% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 32,893 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $99,000 after purchasing an additional 5,606 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 26.3% in the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 325,748 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $977,000 after purchasing an additional 67,835 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. raised its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 0.5% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 5,147,461 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $15,442,000 after purchasing an additional 27,971 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 29.4% in the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,375,485 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $4,126,000 after purchasing an additional 312,377 shares during the period. 76.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Viking Therapeutics Price Performance

The company’s 50-day moving average price is $48.96 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $26.31.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 7th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.25) earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of ($0.25). During the same quarter last year, the firm posted ($0.26) earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -1.1 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.