Insider Selling: Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) CFO Sells 66,756 Shares of Stock

Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) CFO Greg Zante sold 66,756 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, May 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $74.69, for a total transaction of $4,986,005.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 174,854 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,059,845.26. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Performance

NASDAQ VKTX opened at $76.97 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.49 billion, a PE ratio of -82.76 and a beta of 1.12. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. has a one year low of $8.28 and a one year high of $99.41. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $73.19 and a 200-day simple moving average of $37.51.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.26) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.27) by $0.01. During the same period last year, the company earned ($0.25) earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -1.08 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on VKTX. Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $80.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Friday, March 15th. Oppenheimer upped their target price on Viking Therapeutics from $116.00 to $138.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Raymond James raised their price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $37.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 27th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Friday, February 23rd. Finally, BTIG Research lifted their price target on Viking Therapeutics from $100.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $112.25.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,381,904 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $100,157,000 after buying an additional 97,552 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in Viking Therapeutics by 59.6% during the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,202,228 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $24,379,000 after acquiring an additional 822,156 shares during the period. Deerfield Management Company L.P. Series C increased its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 13.7% during the third quarter. Deerfield Management Company L.P. Series C now owns 1,279,000 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $14,159,000 after purchasing an additional 154,000 shares during the period. Wasatch Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 32.4% during the fourth quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 1,274,945 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $23,727,000 after purchasing an additional 311,681 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 88.3% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,119,885 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $20,841,000 after purchasing an additional 525,296 shares in the last quarter. 76.03% of the stock is 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. 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.