Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.02 EPS

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The biotechnology company reported ($0.22) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.24) by $0.02, Briefing.com reports. During the same period last year, the business posted ($0.23) EPS.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Up 21.2 %

VKTX traded up $12.83 during trading on Thursday, hitting $73.22. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 16,322,708 shares, compared to its average volume of 4,350,632. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -78.73 and a beta of 1.00. Viking Therapeutics has a 12 month low of $8.28 and a 12 month high of $99.41. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $62.92 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $61.66.

Insider Transactions at Viking Therapeutics

In other news, CEO Brian Lian sold 216,130 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.83, for a total transaction of $15,308,487.90. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,304,927 shares in the company, valued at $163,257,979.41. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, Director J Matthew Singleton sold 20,786 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.53, for a total transaction of $1,195,818.58. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 9,500 shares in the company, valued at $546,535. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Brian Lian sold 216,130 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction on Friday, September 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $70.83, for a total value of $15,308,487.90. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,304,927 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $163,257,979.41. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 516,671 shares of company stock worth $33,810,813 over the last 90 days. 4.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VKTX has been the topic of several recent research reports. Raymond James lifted their price objective on Viking Therapeutics from $116.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. StockNews.com upgraded Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. assumed coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $80.00 target price for the company. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and set a $90.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Oppenheimer restated an “outperform” rating and set a $138.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $108.60.

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.