Short Interest in Viking Holdings Ltd (NYSE:VIK) Decreases By 18.7%

Viking Holdings Ltd (NYSE:VIK) saw a large drop in short interest during the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 7,660,000 shares, a drop of 18.7% from the February 28th total of 9,420,000 shares. Approximately 4.6% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 3,190,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.4 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in Viking in the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,269,000. Blue Chip Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Viking in the fourth quarter worth approximately $279,000. Renaissance Capital LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Viking by 8.5% in the fourth quarter. Renaissance Capital LLC now owns 121,547 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,355,000 after purchasing an additional 9,527 shares in the last quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Viking during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $339,000. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in Viking by 25.7% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 4,090,768 shares of the company’s stock worth $154,931,000 after buying an additional 836,353 shares in the last quarter. 98.84% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on Viking from $53.00 to $49.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. Citigroup assumed coverage on shares of Viking in a report on Thursday, December 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $54.00 price target on the stock. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Viking from $54.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Truist Financial boosted their target price on shares of Viking from $49.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Finally, Loop Capital began coverage on Viking in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $55.00 price target for the company. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and twelve have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.29.

Viking Price Performance

Shares of VIK traded up $1.51 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $42.00. The stock had a trading volume of 3,081,903 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,475,173. Viking has a 1-year low of $25.71 and a 1-year high of $53.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.12 billion and a P/E ratio of 161.54. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $46.53 and a 200-day simple moving average of $43.49.

Viking (NYSE:VIK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, March 11th. The company reported $0.45 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $1.35 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.34 billion. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that Viking will post 1.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Viking

Viking Holdings Ltd engages in the passenger shipping and other forms of passenger transport in North America, the United Kingdom, and internationally. It operates through River and Ocean segments. The company also operates as a tour entrepreneur for passengers and related activities in tourism. As of December 31, 2023, it operated a fleet of 92 ships, including 81 river vessels comprising 58 Longships, 10 smaller classes based on the Longship design, 11 other river vessels, and 1 river vessel charter and the Viking Mississippi; 9 ocean ships; and 2 expedition ships.