Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Earns Overweight Rating from Analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. started coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) in a research note published on Wednesday, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage issued an overweight rating and a $80.00 price target on the biotechnology company’s stock.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Truist Financial reiterated a buy rating and set a $120.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Monday, June 17th. Maxim Group reiterated a buy rating and set a $120.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Tuesday, June 4th. StockNews.com upgraded Viking Therapeutics to a sell rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley initiated coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, June 27th. They set an overweight rating and a $105.00 target price for the company. Finally, Raymond James raised their price objective on Viking Therapeutics from $116.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock a strong-buy rating in a research note on Thursday, July 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $108.60.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Up 6.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:VKTX opened at $66.73 on Wednesday. Viking Therapeutics has a 52-week low of $8.28 and a 52-week high of $99.41. The company has a 50 day moving average of $58.00 and a two-hundred day moving average of $64.08. The company has a market capitalization of $7.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -71.75 and a beta of 1.00.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 24th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.20) EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.26) by $0.06. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.19) EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Viking Therapeutics will post -0.99 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Viking Therapeutics news, CEO Brian Lian sold 115,859 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.58, for a total value of $6,671,161.22. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,354,927 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $135,596,696.66. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other Viking Therapeutics news, CEO Brian Lian sold 115,859 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.58, for a total value of $6,671,161.22. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,354,927 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $135,596,696.66. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, COO Marianna Mancini sold 18,026 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $57.13, for a total value of $1,029,825.38. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 362,149 shares in the company, valued at $20,689,572.37. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 290,241 shares of company stock valued at $17,786,475 over the last three months. Company insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 44.7% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 7,785,724 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $638,429,000 after purchasing an additional 2,403,820 shares during the period. Avoro Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Viking Therapeutics during the first quarter worth about $294,380,000. Wasatch Advisors LP grew its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 32.4% during the fourth quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 1,274,945 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $23,727,000 after acquiring an additional 311,681 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 88.3% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,119,885 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $20,841,000 after acquiring an additional 525,296 shares during the period. Finally, Perpetual Ltd acquired a new position in Viking Therapeutics during the first quarter worth about $78,586,000. 76.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.