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

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. purchased a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the first quarter worth about $242,000. Affinity Asset Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the first quarter worth about $604,000. AlphaQuest LLC increased its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 506.4% during the first quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 11,753 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $284,000 after buying an additional 9,815 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 205.6% in the first quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 17,875 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $430,000 after buying an additional 12,026 shares during the period. Finally, Aptus Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 3.4% in the first quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 50,381 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $1,217,000 after buying an additional 1,674 shares during the period. 76.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of Viking Therapeutics stock traded down $0.90 on Monday, hitting $26.08. 1,518,818 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,766,462. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $31.22 and a 200-day simple moving average of $28.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.93 billion, a PE ratio of -17.08 and a beta of 0.73. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $18.92 and a 1 year high of $81.73.

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 for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.44) by ($0.14). The business's quarterly revenue was up NaN% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.20) EPS. On average, analysts expect that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -1.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Brian Lian sold 26,889 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.80, for a total transaction of $747,514.20. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 2,388,014 shares of the company's stock, valued at $66,386,789.20. The trade was a 1.11% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Marianna Mancini sold 4,266 shares of Viking Therapeutics 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 transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 377,535 shares in the company, valued at approximately $10,484,146.95. The trade was a 1.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 35,421 shares of company stock valued at $984,405 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 4.10% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VKTX has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Raymond James Financial lowered their price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $125.00 to $122.00 and set a "strong-buy" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 24th. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $31.00 to $38.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 24th. Finally, HC Wainwright reissued a "buy" rating and issued a $102.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. Two equities 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, Viking Therapeutics has a consensus rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $86.92.

Viking Therapeutics Company 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.