American Century Companies Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX)

American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) by 9.4% 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 301,582 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 25,824 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. owned 0.27% of Viking Therapeutics worth $12,136,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of VKTX. S.A. Mason LLC increased its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 20.0% in the fourth quarter. S.A. Mason LLC now owns 1,800 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $72,000 after purchasing an additional 300 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in Viking Therapeutics by 75.9% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 716 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $29,000 after buying an additional 309 shares in the last quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich increased its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 7.4% in the 4th quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 4,980 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $221,000 after acquiring an additional 345 shares during the last quarter. Arizona State Retirement System raised its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 1.2% in the 4th quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 28,929 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $1,164,000 after acquiring an additional 353 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Activest Wealth Management boosted its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 24.1% during the 4th quarter. Activest Wealth Management now owns 2,165 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $87,000 after acquiring an additional 420 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 76.03% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Greg Zante sold 50,309 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.75, for a total value of $2,150,709.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 165,259 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,064,822.25. This represents a 23.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Brian Lian sold 194,490 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.75, for a total transaction of $8,314,447.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,366,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $101,170,867.50. This trade represents a 7.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 299,014 shares of company stock worth $12,782,849. 4.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on VKTX. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $74.00 to $71.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 6th. Maxim Group dropped their price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $120.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 7th. B. Riley reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $96.00 target price (down previously from $109.00) on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Raymond James raised their price target on Viking Therapeutics from $122.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 6th. Finally, HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $102.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $95.18.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Down 1.0 %

NASDAQ:VKTX opened at $23.91 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.68 billion, a P/E ratio of -23.91 and a beta of 0.90. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $23.27 and a 52 week high of $81.86. The company has a fifty day moving average of $29.94 and a 200 day moving average of $45.92.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.32) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.27) by ($0.05). During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted ($0.25) EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -1.56 EPS for the current year.

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.