Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) posted its earnings results on Wednesday. The biotechnology company reported ($0.20) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.26) by $0.06, Briefing.com reports. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.19) EPS.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Up 2.0 %

NASDAQ VKTX traded up $1.30 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $65.98. 9,296,767 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,218,861. The company has a 50 day moving average of $55.72 and a two-hundred day moving average of $56.21. Viking Therapeutics has a 52-week low of $8.28 and a 52-week high of $99.41. The firm has a market cap of $7.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -70.95 and a beta of 1.03.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Greg Zante sold 66,756 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.69, for a total transaction of $4,986,005.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 174,854 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,059,845.26. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Greg Zante sold 66,756 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.69, for a total transaction of $4,986,005.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 174,854 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $13,059,845.26. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Marianna Mancini sold 281,425 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 348,508 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,413,639.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 4.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on VKTX. Maxim Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Tuesday, June 4th. Morgan Stanley began coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $105.00 target price for the company. Truist Financial reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $120.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Monday, June 17th. Raymond James lifted their price objective on Viking Therapeutics from $116.00 to $118.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, StockNews.com raised Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average 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.