Insider Selling: Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) Director Sells $137,340.00 in Stock

Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) Director Lawson Macartney sold 2,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $68.67, for a total value of $137,340.00. Following the sale, the director now owns 47,965 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,293,756.55. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

Viking Therapeutics Trading Down 0.5 %

Viking Therapeutics stock opened at $68.48 on Monday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $64.76 and a two-hundred day moving average of $61.84. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $9.34 and a twelve month high of $99.41. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -73.63 and a beta of 1.00.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The biotechnology company reported ($0.22) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.24) by $0.02. During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.23) EPS. Equities analysts predict that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -0.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Viking Therapeutics

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Oak Ridge Investments LLC purchased a new position in Viking Therapeutics during the third quarter worth about $837,000. Nvwm LLC acquired a new position in Viking Therapeutics during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $999,000. Nepsis Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $11,251,000. CWM LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 70.6% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 1,518 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $80,000 after buying an additional 628 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James & Associates boosted its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 43.2% in the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 441,590 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $27,957,000 after buying an additional 133,144 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.03% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently weighed in on VKTX shares. HC Wainwright boosted their price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $90.00 to $102.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $138.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $105.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Thursday, September 12th. StockNews.com raised Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. assumed coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $80.00 price target on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $109.80.

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.