Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Issues Earnings Results

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) released its earnings results on Wednesday. The biotechnology company reported ($0.26) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.27) by $0.01, Briefing.com reports. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.25) earnings per share.

Viking Therapeutics Price Performance

Shares of VKTX opened at $69.18 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $67.61 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $34.55. Viking Therapeutics has a twelve month low of $8.28 and a twelve month high of $99.41.

Insider Buying and Selling at Viking Therapeutics

In other Viking Therapeutics news, CEO Brian Lian sold 269,079 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.87, for a total transaction of $7,230,152.73. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 2,184,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $58,707,779.34. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, CEO Brian Lian sold 269,079 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.87, for a total value of $7,230,152.73. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,184,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $58,707,779.34. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Sarah Kathryn Rouan sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.05, for a total transaction of $701,250.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 329,079 shares of company stock valued at $8,769,653 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VKTX has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. HC Wainwright reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $90.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday. Maxim Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, March 15th. BTIG Research upped their price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $100.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Raymond James upped their price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $37.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 27th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. They set a “buy” rating and a $110.00 price target on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $112.25.

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.