Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Stock Price Down 0.6%

Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX - Get Free Report) shares dropped 0.6% on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $76.62 and last traded at $78.00. Approximately 968,323 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 85% from the average daily volume of 6,323,543 shares. The stock had previously closed at $78.44.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VKTX has been the subject of several research reports. Raymond James boosted their price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $37.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, February 27th. BTIG Research upped their target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $100.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Thursday, March 7th. They set a "buy" rating and a $110.00 target price for the company. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $116.00 to $138.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $80.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Friday, March 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Viking Therapeutics presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $112.25.

Viking Therapeutics Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $7.40 billion, a P/E ratio of -80.09 and a beta of 1.05. The stock's 50-day simple moving average is $55.79 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $28.89.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.25) earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.25). During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($0.26) earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -1.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Sarah Kathryn Rouan sold 30,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.05, for a total transaction of $691,500.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other Viking Therapeutics news, CEO Brian Lian sold 269,079 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.87, for a total transaction of $7,230,152.73. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,184,882 shares in the company, valued at $58,707,779.34. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Sarah Kathryn Rouan sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, January 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.05, for a total transaction of $691,500.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 359,079 shares of company stock worth $9,461,153. 4.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Viking Therapeutics

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 237.9% in the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 6,894,923 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $111,767,000 after acquiring an additional 4,854,645 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,381,904 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $100,157,000 after acquiring an additional 97,552 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 2,039.4% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,280,944 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $87,928,000 after acquiring an additional 5,034,102 shares during the period. Viking Global Investors LP raised its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 12.5% in the fourth quarter. Viking Global Investors LP now owns 5,145,112 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $95,751,000 after acquiring an additional 571,796 shares during the period. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 21,586.9% in the second quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 2,961,561 shares of the biotechnology company's stock valued at $48,007,000 after acquiring an additional 2,947,905 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 76.03% of the company's stock.

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.