Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) was upgraded by Zacks Investment Research from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a note issued to investors on Tuesday, Zacks.com reports.
According to Zacks, "Viking Therapeutics, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company. The company is engaged in development of novel therapies for metabolic and endocrine disorders. Its product candidate consists of VK5211, VK0214, VK0612 and VK2809 which are in different clinical trial. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. is based in LA JOLLA, United States. "
Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on VKTX. Stifel Nicolaus restated a "buy" rating and set a $13.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, January 22nd. Raymond James lifted their price objective on Viking Therapeutics from $25.00 to $27.00 and gave the company a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, October 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Viking Therapeutics has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus target price of $16.44.
Shares of Viking Therapeutics stock opened at $7.18 on Tuesday. Viking Therapeutics has a 1 year low of $3.26 and a 1 year high of $10.09. The company has a market capitalization of $532.27 million, a P/E ratio of -14.65 and a beta of 2.02. The company's fifty day moving average is $7.47 and its two-hundred day moving average is $6.62.
Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 17th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.15) earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of ($0.15). As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Viking Therapeutics will post -0.55 earnings per share for the current year.
Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in VKTX. BlackRock Inc. increased its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 12.9% in the 4th quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 5,316,337 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $29,931,000 after purchasing an additional 605,585 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in Viking Therapeutics by 18.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,058,164 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $29,439,000 after purchasing an additional 781,402 shares in the last quarter. Park West Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Park West Asset Management LLC now owns 1,491,065 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $8,395,000 after purchasing an additional 33,558 shares during the last quarter. Deerfield Management Company L.P. Series C purchased a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the third quarter valued at $2,028,000. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 102.3% in the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 342,724 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $1,994,000 after purchasing an additional 173,320 shares in the last quarter. 54.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
About Viking Therapeutics
Viking Therapeutics, Inc, a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, focuses on the development of novel therapies for metabolic and endocrine disorders. Its lead drug candidate is VK2809, an orally available tissue and receptor-subtype selective agonist of the thyroid hormone receptor beta, which is in Phase 2b clinical trials to treat patients with biopsy-confirmed non-alcoholic steatohepatitis.
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