Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.02 EPS

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) posted its earnings results on Wednesday. The biotechnology company reported ($0.22) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.24) by $0.02, Briefing.com reports. During the same quarter last year, the company earned ($0.23) EPS.

Viking Therapeutics Price Performance

NASDAQ VKTX traded up $12.83 on Thursday, hitting $73.22. The company had a trading volume of 16,322,708 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,350,632. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $62.92 and its 200-day moving average price is $61.66. The company has a market capitalization of $8.07 billion, a PE ratio of -78.73 and a beta of 1.00. Viking Therapeutics has a 12-month low of $8.28 and a 12-month high of $99.41.

Insider Buying and Selling at Viking Therapeutics

In other Viking Therapeutics news, Director J Matthew Singleton sold 20,786 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.53, for a total transaction of $1,195,818.58. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 9,500 shares in the company, valued at approximately $546,535. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, Director J Matthew Singleton sold 20,786 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the director now owns 9,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $546,535. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Marianna Mancini sold 18,026 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.13, for a total transaction of $1,029,825.38. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 362,149 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,689,572.37. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 516,671 shares of company stock valued at $33,810,813 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on VKTX shares. StockNews.com upgraded Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $90.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Thursday. Raymond James boosted their price target on Viking Therapeutics from $116.00 to $118.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $138.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. started coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $80.00 target price for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Viking Therapeutics presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $108.60.

Viking Therapeutics Company Profile

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.