AGF Management Ltd. Raises Stock Position in Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX)

AGF Management Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) by 50.1% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 164,263 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 54,814 shares during the quarter. AGF Management Ltd.’s holdings in Viking Therapeutics were worth $6,610,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 0.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 16,619,430 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $1,052,176,000 after acquiring an additional 79,149 shares during the period. Braidwell LP increased its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 4.5% during the third quarter. Braidwell LP now owns 1,156,977 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $73,248,000 after acquiring an additional 50,072 shares during the period. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP increased its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 18.3% during the third quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 930,370 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $58,902,000 after acquiring an additional 143,675 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 728,652 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $29,321,000 after acquiring an additional 13,055 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 5.9% during the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 628,764 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $25,301,000 after acquiring an additional 35,236 shares during the period. 76.03% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on VKTX. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $102.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Tuesday. Scotiabank began coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Thursday, February 13th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $102.00 price objective on the stock. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Piper Sandler cut their price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $74.00 to $71.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, B. Riley reissued a “buy” rating and set a $96.00 price objective (down from $109.00) on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Friday, February 7th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $96.31.

Insider Transactions at Viking Therapeutics

In other news, CEO Brian Lian sold 194,490 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.75, for a total transaction of $8,314,447.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,366,570 shares in the company, valued at approximately $101,170,867.50. The trade was a 7.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, COO Marianna Mancini sold 54,215 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.75, for a total transaction of $2,317,691.25. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 374,134 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,994,228.50. The trade was a 12.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 299,014 shares of company stock worth $12,782,849. Company insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Up 11.4 %

Shares of VKTX opened at $29.55 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $3.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -29.55 and a beta of 0.90. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $24.41 and a twelve month high of $89.10. The company has a 50 day moving average of $32.66 and a two-hundred day moving average of $49.20.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.32) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.27) by ($0.05). During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted ($0.25) EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -1.56 EPS for the current year.

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.