Wolff Wiese Magana LLC Purchases New Position in Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX)

Wolff Wiese Magana LLC bought a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 1,862 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock, valued at approximately $75,000.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in VKTX. Signaturefd LLC grew its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 16.2% during the third quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,351 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $86,000 after acquiring an additional 188 shares during the last quarter. Stone House Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Viking Therapeutics by 66.7% in the third quarter. Stone House Investment Management LLC now owns 500 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $32,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. Keudell Morrison Wealth Management boosted its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 5.9% in the 3rd quarter. Keudell Morrison Wealth Management now owns 4,306 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $273,000 after purchasing an additional 241 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in Viking Therapeutics by 124.6% during the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 438 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 243 shares during the period. Finally, Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV raised its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 84.3% during the 3rd quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 553 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 253 shares in the last quarter. 76.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Brian Lian sold 194,490 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $42.75, for a total value of $8,314,447.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,366,570 shares in the company, valued at approximately $101,170,867.50. This trade represents a 7.59 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Sarah Kathryn Rouan sold 11,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $80.89, for a total value of $889,790.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,500 shares in the company, valued at $768,455. This trade represents a 53.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 443,701 shares of company stock worth $23,898,520 over the last ninety days. 4.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Viking Therapeutics Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of VKTX opened at $34.45 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $48.88 and its 200 day simple moving average is $56.60. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $20.28 and a twelve month high of $99.41. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.84 billion, a P/E ratio of -37.04 and a beta of 0.95.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The biotechnology company reported ($0.22) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.24) by $0.02. During the same period last year, the business earned ($0.23) earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -0.97 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on VKTX. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and issued a $102.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. B. Riley started coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $109.00 price target on the stock. William Blair reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $138.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, Piper Sandler began coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $74.00 price objective on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $106.75.

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.