Magnetar Financial LLC Sells 38,415 Shares of Viking Therapeutics, Inc. $VKTX

Key Points

• Magnetar Financial LLC significantly reduced its stake in Viking Therapeutics, lowering its holdings by 79.9% to 9,687 shares, valued at approximately $234,000.
• Several institutional investors have increased their stakes in Viking Therapeutics, with some notable increases including NBC Securities and Future Financial Wealth Management growing their investments by over 200,000% and 1,200%, respectively.
• Viking Therapeutics reported a loss of ($0.58) earnings per share for the last quarter, missing analysts' estimates, while its stock has a current market cap of $3.09 billion and a consensus "Buy" rating from analysts.

Magnetar Financial LLC trimmed its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX - Free Report) by 79.9% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 9,687 shares of the biotechnology company's stock after selling 38,415 shares during the quarter. Magnetar Financial LLC's holdings in Viking Therapeutics were worth $234,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 64.8% during the first quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 1,363 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $33,000 after purchasing an additional 536 shares in the last quarter. NBC Securities Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 222,100.0% in the first quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 2,222 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $53,000 after acquiring an additional 2,221 shares during the period. JNBA Financial Advisors acquired a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the first quarter worth approximately $56,000. Future Financial Wealth Managment LLC lifted its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 1,242.9% in the first quarter. Future Financial Wealth Managment LLC now owns 2,350 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $57,000 after acquiring an additional 2,175 shares during the period. Finally, Signaturefd LLC lifted its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 126.8% in the first quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 2,830 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $68,000 after acquiring an additional 1,582 shares during the period. 76.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. HC Wainwright reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $102.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. Citigroup lifted 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, July 24th. Finally, Raymond James Financial cut their price objective on Viking Therapeutics from $125.00 to $122.00 and set a "strong-buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 24th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Buy" and an average target price of $86.92.

Insider Activity

In other 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 owned 2,388,014 shares in the company, valued at $66,386,789.20. The trade was a 1.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Marianna Mancini sold 4,266 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.77, for a total value of $118,466.82. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 377,535 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $10,484,146.95. This represents a 1.12% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 35,421 shares of company stock worth $984,405 over the last quarter. 4.10% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Up 1.7%

VKTX traded up $0.45 during trading on Friday, hitting $26.98. The company's stock had a trading volume of 5,240,439 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,570,530. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $18.92 and a twelve month high of $81.73. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $31.22 and its 200-day moving average price is $28.40. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.03 billion, a P/E ratio of -17.63 and a beta of 0.73.

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