Citigroup Begins Coverage on Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX)

Stock analysts at Citigroup assumed coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) in a report issued on Friday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. The brokerage set a “neutral” rating and a $38.00 price target on the biotechnology company’s stock. Citigroup’s target price points to a potential upside of 20.79% from the stock’s previous close.

VKTX has been the topic of a number of other reports. 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. 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. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and set a $102.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday. StockNews.com raised Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, B. Riley assumed coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $109.00 price objective on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $101.77.

Viking Therapeutics Price Performance

NASDAQ VKTX opened at $31.46 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $3.51 billion, a P/E ratio of -33.83 and a beta of 0.90. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $40.46 and its two-hundred day moving average is $54.01. Viking Therapeutics has a fifty-two week low of $23.81 and a fifty-two week high of $99.41.

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 the consensus estimate of ($0.27) by ($0.05). During the same period in the previous year, the business posted ($0.25) earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Viking Therapeutics will post -0.97 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Viking Therapeutics

In other Viking Therapeutics news, CEO Brian Lian sold 194,490 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,366,570 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $101,170,867.50. This trade represents a 7.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, COO Marianna Mancini sold 54,215 shares of the company’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 $2,317,691.25. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 374,134 shares in the company, 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. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 299,014 shares of company stock valued at $12,782,849. 4.70% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 0.5% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 16,619,430 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $1,052,176,000 after buying an additional 79,149 shares in the last quarter. Braidwell LP grew its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 4.5% during the 3rd quarter. Braidwell LP now owns 1,156,977 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $73,248,000 after acquiring an additional 50,072 shares during the last quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC increased its position in Viking Therapeutics by 10,775.6% in the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 1,004,033 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $63,565,000 after acquiring an additional 994,801 shares in the last quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP increased its position in Viking Therapeutics by 18.3% in the 3rd quarter. Westfield Capital Management Co. LP now owns 930,370 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $58,902,000 after acquiring an additional 143,675 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 728,652 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $29,321,000 after acquiring an additional 13,055 shares during the last quarter. 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.