Piper Sandler Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Stock Price

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) had its price target reduced by investment analysts at Piper Sandler from $74.00 to $71.00 in a research report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “overweight” rating on the biotechnology company’s stock. Piper Sandler’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 111.94% from the company’s current price.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. StockNews.com upgraded Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. B. Riley initiated coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $109.00 price objective for the company. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and set a $102.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Friday, January 17th. Finally, William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $106.50.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of VKTX opened at $33.50 on Thursday. Viking Therapeutics has a 52-week low of $23.11 and a 52-week high of $99.41. The firm has a market cap of $3.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -36.02 and a beta of 0.90. The business’s fifty day moving average is $40.92 and its 200-day moving average is $54.17.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.32) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.27) by ($0.05). During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($0.25) EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Viking Therapeutics will post -0.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Viking Therapeutics

In other Viking Therapeutics news, CEO Brian Lian sold 194,490 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.75, for a total value of $8,314,447.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,366,570 shares in the company, valued at approximately $101,170,867.50. This represents a 7.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, Director Lawson Macartney sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $68.67, for a total value of $137,340.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 47,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,293,756.55. This represents a 4.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 301,014 shares of company stock worth $12,920,189 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Viking Therapeutics

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Oak Ridge Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the third quarter valued at $837,000. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. boosted its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 43.5% during the 3rd quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 102,324 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $6,478,000 after purchasing an additional 31,011 shares during the last quarter. Nvwm LLC bought a new stake in Viking Therapeutics during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $999,000. Chartwell Investment Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 88.0% in the third quarter. Chartwell Investment Partners LLC now owns 36,666 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $2,322,000 after purchasing an additional 17,159 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 92.1% in the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 131,348 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $8,316,000 after purchasing an additional 62,956 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.03% of the company’s stock.

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.