Bank of New York Mellon Corp Has $12.52 Million Position in Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX)

Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX - Free Report) by 12.0% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 518,298 shares of the biotechnology company's stock after purchasing an additional 55,334 shares during the quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp owned about 0.46% of Viking Therapeutics worth $12,517,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in Viking Therapeutics during the 4th quarter valued at $1,715,000. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 121.5% during the 1st quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 29,721 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $718,000 after acquiring an additional 16,302 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 9,209.9% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 24,392 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $589,000 after acquiring an additional 24,130 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the 4th quarter worth $429,000. Finally, LPL Financial LLC boosted its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 18.2% during the 4th quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 96,702 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $3,891,000 after acquiring an additional 14,873 shares in the last quarter. 76.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on VKTX. Cantor Fitzgerald raised Viking Therapeutics to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. Raymond James Financial reduced their price objective on Viking Therapeutics from $125.00 to $122.00 and set a "strong-buy" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. HC Wainwright reissued a "buy" rating and set a $102.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, June 25th. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Tuesday, April 8th. They set a "neutral" rating and a $30.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Citigroup raised their price objective on Viking Therapeutics from $31.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, Viking Therapeutics presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $86.92.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Brian Lian sold 26,889 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.80, for a total value of $747,514.20. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,388,014 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $66,386,789.20. This trade represents a 1.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO Marianna Mancini sold 4,266 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.77, for a total value of $118,466.82. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 377,535 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,484,146.95. This represents a 1.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 35,421 shares of company stock valued at $984,405 over the last three months. 4.10% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Viking Therapeutics Trading Up 0.3%

Viking Therapeutics stock traded up $0.10 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $33.50. 7,799,683 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,719,464. The stock has a market cap of $3.76 billion, a P/E ratio of -21.90 and a beta of 0.62. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $18.92 and a 1-year high of $81.73. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $28.28 and a two-hundred day moving average of $28.86.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 23rd. The biotechnology company reported ($0.58) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.44) by ($0.14). Viking Therapeutics's revenue was up NaN% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned ($0.20) EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -1.56 EPS for the current fiscal 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.