Maxim Group Lowers Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Price Target to $70.00

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) had its price objective lowered by stock analysts at Maxim Group from $120.00 to $70.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “buy” rating on the biotechnology company’s stock. Maxim Group’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 114.99% from the stock’s previous close.

Other equities analysts have also issued reports about the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Raymond James raised their price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $122.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Piper Sandler lowered their target price on Viking Therapeutics from $74.00 to $71.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Finally, B. Riley reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $96.00 price objective (down from $109.00) on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, twelve have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $96.92.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Performance

Viking Therapeutics stock traded up $1.10 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $32.56. 4,818,065 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,020,497. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $40.46 and its 200 day simple moving average is $54.01. The firm has a market cap of $3.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -35.01 and a beta of 0.90. Viking Therapeutics has a 52 week low of $25.34 and a 52 week high of $99.41.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.32) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.27) by ($0.05). During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($0.25) earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Viking Therapeutics will post -0.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Viking Therapeutics

In related news, CFO Greg Zante sold 50,309 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.75, for a total transaction of $2,150,709.75. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 165,259 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,064,822.25. The trade was a 23.34 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Marianna Mancini sold 54,215 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.75, for a total transaction of $2,317,691.25. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 374,134 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,994,228.50. The trade was a 12.66 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 299,014 shares of company stock valued at $12,782,849 in the last ninety days. 4.70% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Viking Therapeutics

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Creative Planning increased its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 3.4% in the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 15,753 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $835,000 after buying an additional 524 shares during the period. Truist Financial Corp increased its position in Viking Therapeutics by 357.1% in the 2nd quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 26,049 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $1,381,000 after acquiring an additional 20,350 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 114.0% during the second quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 49,311 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $2,614,000 after acquiring an additional 26,270 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the second quarter worth $190,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 124.6% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 438 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 243 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.