Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Issues Earnings Results

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) announced its earnings results on Wednesday. The biotechnology company reported ($0.26) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.27) by $0.01, Briefing.com reports. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.25) earnings per share.

Viking Therapeutics Price Performance

VKTX stock traded up $0.91 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $65.98. 1,511,105 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,598,100. The firm has a market cap of $7.27 billion, a P/E ratio of -70.73 and a beta of 1.05. Viking Therapeutics has a 1-year low of $8.28 and a 1-year high of $99.41. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $66.95 and its 200-day simple moving average is $34.33.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on VKTX. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $116.00 to $138.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Truist Financial increased their target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $32.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Raymond James raised their price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $37.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 27th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $80.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Friday, March 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Viking Therapeutics presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $112.25.

Insider Transactions at Viking Therapeutics

In other Viking Therapeutics news, CEO Brian Lian sold 269,079 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,184,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $58,707,779.34. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other Viking Therapeutics news, CEO Brian Lian sold 269,079 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,184,882 shares in the company, valued at $58,707,779.34. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Sarah Kathryn Rouan sold 25,000 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.05, for a total transaction of $701,250.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 329,079 shares of company stock valued at $8,769,653. 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.