Stock Traders Purchase Large Volume of Viking Therapeutics Call Options (NASDAQ:VKTX)

Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) saw some unusual options trading on Friday. Stock traders acquired 51,718 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 193% compared to the typical daily volume of 17,647 call options.

Institutional Trading of Viking Therapeutics

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Cornerstone Capital Inc. bought a new position in Viking Therapeutics during the 2nd quarter valued at about $3,334,000. Timothy G. Youngquist 2020 Irrevocable Trust grew its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 141.6% in the second quarter. Timothy G. Youngquist 2020 Irrevocable Trust now owns 271,849 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $10,605,000 after acquiring an additional 159,349 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the second quarter worth approximately $241,458,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 18.0% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 542,516 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $17,653,000 after purchasing an additional 82,941 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the second quarter valued at approximately $14,971,000. 76.03% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on VKTX. Oppenheimer set a $120.00 price target on Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Tuesday, September 22nd. Barclays raised Viking Therapeutics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 13th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Viking Therapeutics from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 18th. Truist Financial reduced their target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $87.00 to $85.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Tuesday, September 22nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Viking Therapeutics currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $93.36.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Up 6.2%

NASDAQ:VKTX traded up $1.70 on Friday, reaching $29.28. 5,711,427 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,316,804. The company has a market capitalization of $3.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -5.42 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a current ratio of 7.27, a quick ratio of 7.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. Viking Therapeutics has a 12 month low of $23.82 and a 12 month high of $43.10. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $29.42 and its 200 day simple moving average is $32.18.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 28th. The biotechnology company reported ($1.55) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($1.06) by ($0.49). During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned ($0.81) EPS. Equities analysts predict that Viking Therapeutics will post -5.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Viking Therapeutics

Viking Therapeutics, Inc. is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company based in San Diego, California. Founded in 2012, it develops medicines for metabolic and endocrine disorders and does not have commercially marketed products. The company’s pipeline includes VK2735, an investigational drug that targets the GLP-1 and GIP receptors and is being developed for obesity, and VK2809, a thyroid hormone receptor beta agonist being studied for metabolic and liver conditions. Viking is also developing VK0214 for X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy, a rare genetic disorder.