Insider Selling: Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) CFO Sells 50,309 Shares of Stock

Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) CFO Greg Zante sold 50,309 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.75, for a total value of $2,150,709.75. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 165,259 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,064,822.25. This represents a 23.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Greg Zante also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, October 28th, Greg Zante sold 131,687 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.61, for a total transaction of $10,088,541.07.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of VKTX traded down $0.36 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $42.53. The company had a trading volume of 2,734,366 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,071,149. The company has a market capitalization of $4.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -45.73 and a beta of 0.95. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $51.93 and its 200 day simple moving average is $56.95. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $18.14 and a 1-year high of $99.41.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The biotechnology company reported ($0.22) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.24) by $0.02. During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($0.23) earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -0.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. started coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $80.00 price target on the stock. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $138.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $105.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Finally, HC Wainwright reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $102.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $106.75.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Viking Therapeutics

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Oak Ridge Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the third quarter worth about $837,000. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. boosted its position in Viking Therapeutics by 43.5% during the 3rd quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. now owns 102,324 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $6,478,000 after buying an additional 31,011 shares during the period. Nvwm LLC bought a new stake in Viking Therapeutics during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $999,000. Chartwell Investment Partners LLC increased its position in Viking Therapeutics by 88.0% in the 3rd quarter. Chartwell Investment Partners LLC now owns 36,666 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $2,322,000 after acquiring an additional 17,159 shares during the period. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp raised its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 92.1% during the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 131,348 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $8,316,000 after acquiring an additional 62,956 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.