Affinity Asset Advisors LLC Acquires Shares of 25,000 Viking Therapeutics, Inc. $VKTX

Key Points

• Affinity Asset Advisors LLC acquired 25,000 shares of Viking Therapeutics, Inc. valued at approximately $604,000 during the first quarter.
• Institutional investors now hold 76.03% of Viking Therapeutics' stock, indicating significant interest from large financial entities.
• Recent analyst reports saw target prices for Viking Therapeutics raised, with recommendations ranging from "buy" to "strong-buy", reflecting optimistic sentiment about the stock's future performance.

Affinity Asset Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 25,000 shares of the biotechnology company's stock, valued at approximately $604,000.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in VKTX. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its position in Viking Therapeutics by 64.8% during the first quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 1,363 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $33,000 after buying an additional 536 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. raised its position in Viking Therapeutics by 222,100.0% during the 1st quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 2,222 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $53,000 after purchasing an additional 2,221 shares during the last quarter. JNBA Financial Advisors bought a new position in Viking Therapeutics during the 1st quarter worth $56,000. Future Financial Wealth Managment LLC raised its position in Viking Therapeutics by 1,242.9% during the 1st quarter. Future Financial Wealth Managment LLC now owns 2,350 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $57,000 after purchasing an additional 2,175 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda bought a new position in Viking Therapeutics during the 4th quarter worth $63,000. Institutional investors own 76.03% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Viking Therapeutics news, CEO Brian Lian sold 26,889 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.80, for a total transaction of $747,514.20. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,388,014 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $66,386,789.20. The trade was a 1.11% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Greg Zante sold 4,266 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.76, for a total value of $118,424.16. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 168,660 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,682,001.60. This represents a 2.47% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 35,421 shares of company stock valued at $984,405. Corporate insiders own 4.10% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Citigroup raised their target price on Viking Therapeutics from $31.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. HC Wainwright reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $102.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. Cantor Fitzgerald raised Viking Therapeutics to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 29th. Truist Financial reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $75.00 price objective (down from $95.00) on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Raymond James Financial lowered their price objective on Viking Therapeutics from $125.00 to $122.00 and set a "strong-buy" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $86.92.

Viking Therapeutics Price Performance

Shares of Viking Therapeutics stock opened at $25.85 on Tuesday. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. has a one year low of $18.92 and a one year high of $81.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -16.90 and a beta of 0.67. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $31.15 and a 200 day simple moving average of $28.57.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 23rd. The biotechnology company reported ($0.58) EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.44) by ($0.14). The firm's quarterly revenue was up NaN% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($0.20) earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -1.56 EPS for the current year.

Viking Therapeutics 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.

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