Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Posts Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.06 EPS

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The biotechnology company reported ($0.20) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.26) by $0.06, Briefing.com reports. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.19) earnings per share.

Viking Therapeutics Price Performance

Shares of VKTX opened at $64.68 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $55.75 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $55.89. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.13 billion, a PE ratio of -69.55 and a beta of 1.03. Viking Therapeutics has a one year low of $8.28 and a one year high of $99.41.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO Marianna Mancini sold 281,425 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.66, for a total value of $22,136,890.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 348,508 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,413,639.28. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Viking Therapeutics news, COO Marianna Mancini sold 281,425 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $78.66, for a total transaction of $22,136,890.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 348,508 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,413,639.28. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Greg Zante sold 66,756 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.69, for a total transaction of $4,986,005.64. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 174,854 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,059,845.26. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VKTX has been the subject of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley started coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $105.00 price target for the company. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and set a $90.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Thursday. Maxim Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $120.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Tuesday, June 4th. Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Monday, June 17th. Finally, Raymond James lifted their target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $116.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Viking Therapeutics currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $111.78.

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.