Oppenheimer Reiterates Outperform Rating for Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX)

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reissued by Oppenheimer in a report issued on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. They currently have a $138.00 target price on the biotechnology company’s stock. Oppenheimer’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 121.44% from the company’s current price.

A number of other research firms have also recently issued reports on VKTX. Maxim Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $120.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Tuesday, June 4th. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and set a $90.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. started coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $80.00 price target for the company. Finally, Truist Financial restated a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Monday, June 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $108.60.

Viking Therapeutics Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:VKTX opened at $62.32 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $59.80 and its 200 day simple moving average is $62.88. Viking Therapeutics has a fifty-two week low of $8.28 and a fifty-two week high of $99.41. The company has a market capitalization of $6.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -67.01 and a beta of 1.00.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.20) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.26) by $0.06. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($0.19) earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Viking Therapeutics will post -1 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Viking Therapeutics

In related news, Director J Matthew Singleton sold 20,786 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.53, for a total value of $1,195,818.58. Following the sale, the director now owns 9,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $546,535. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other Viking Therapeutics news, CEO Brian Lian sold 216,130 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $70.83, for a total value of $15,308,487.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,304,927 shares in the company, valued at $163,257,979.41. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director J Matthew Singleton sold 20,786 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.53, for a total transaction of $1,195,818.58. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $546,535. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 516,671 shares of company stock worth $33,810,813 in the last three months. Insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Viking Therapeutics

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 44.7% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,785,724 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $638,429,000 after buying an additional 2,403,820 shares during the last quarter. Avoro Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Viking Therapeutics in the 1st quarter valued at $294,380,000. Wasatch Advisors LP lifted its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 32.4% during the 4th quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 1,274,945 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $23,727,000 after purchasing an additional 311,681 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its position in Viking Therapeutics by 88.3% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,119,885 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $20,841,000 after purchasing an additional 525,296 shares during the period. Finally, Perpetual Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the first quarter valued at $78,586,000. Institutional investors own 76.03% 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.