Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Trading Down 1.3% – Here’s What Happened

Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX)’s share price traded down 1.3% during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as low as $40.77 and last traded at $41.70. 919,009 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 79% from the average session volume of 4,468,729 shares. The stock had previously closed at $42.25.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VKTX has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $105.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, September 12th. Piper Sandler assumed coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Monday, December 2nd. They set an “overweight” rating and a $74.00 price target on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. began coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $80.00 price objective for the company. HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $102.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, December 18th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $106.75.

Viking Therapeutics Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $4.72 billion, a PE ratio of -45.54 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $56.65 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $57.63.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The biotechnology company reported ($0.22) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.24) by $0.02. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.23) earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -0.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other Viking Therapeutics news, Director Lawson Macartney sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.67, for a total value of $137,340.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 47,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,293,756.55. This represents a 4.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Sarah Kathryn Rouan sold 11,000 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.89, for a total value of $889,790.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 9,500 shares in the company, valued at approximately $768,455. The trade was a 53.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 144,687 shares of company stock worth $11,115,671. 4.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Viking Therapeutics

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 16.9% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 407,256 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $21,589,000 after buying an additional 58,763 shares during the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 71.2% in the 2nd quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 25,128 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,332,000 after purchasing an additional 10,447 shares during the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 20.4% in the 2nd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 22,177 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $1,176,000 after purchasing an additional 3,755 shares in the last quarter. F M Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the second quarter worth about $2,164,000. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 26.6% in the second quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 456,799 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $24,215,000 after purchasing an additional 95,960 shares in the last quarter. 76.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.