Raymond James & Associates Grows Stake in Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX)

Raymond James & Associates increased its stake in Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) by 100.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 137,583 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 68,921 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates owned approximately 0.14% of Viking Therapeutics worth $2,560,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Retirement Group LLC lifted its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 75.0% in the second quarter. Retirement Group LLC now owns 2,100 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $34,000 after purchasing an additional 900 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC bought a new stake in Viking Therapeutics in the second quarter worth about $36,000. Engineers Gate Manager LP bought a new stake in Viking Therapeutics in the first quarter worth about $37,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in Viking Therapeutics in the second quarter worth about $53,000. Finally, Great West Life Assurance Co. Can bought a new stake in Viking Therapeutics in the first quarter worth about $63,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 76.03% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VKTX has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Truist Financial lifted their price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $32.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $90.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $80.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, March 15th. Finally, Raymond James boosted their price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $37.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $112.25.

Viking Therapeutics Trading Down 2.4 %

NASDAQ VKTX opened at $66.95 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $62.55 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $32.04. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. has a 12-month low of $8.28 and a 12-month high of $99.41. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.38 billion, a P/E ratio of -72.77 and a beta of 1.05.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 7th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.25) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of ($0.25). During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned ($0.26) earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -1.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

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.