Engineers Gate Manager LP Purchases Shares of 46,735 Viking Therapeutics, Inc. $VKTX

Engineers Gate Manager LP acquired a new position in Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 46,735 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,823,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of VKTX. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the second quarter valued at $241,458,000. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Viking Therapeutics by 24.0% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,994,509 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $70,183,000 after purchasing an additional 385,903 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 536.3% during the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 992,695 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $34,923,000 after buying an additional 836,686 shares in the last quarter. Artia Global Partners LP boosted its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 392.1% during the fourth quarter. Artia Global Partners LP now owns 719,365 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $25,307,000 after buying an additional 573,186 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ADAR1 Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Viking Therapeutics in the 2nd quarter valued at $22,393,000. 76.03% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VKTX has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $75.00 to $65.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 11th. Canaccord Genuity Group lifted their target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $107.00 to $114.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Zacks Research raised shares of Viking Therapeutics from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 18th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d-)” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Friday, July 17th. Finally, Lake Street Capital assumed coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. They set a “buy” rating and a $89.00 price target for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $96.62.

Viking Therapeutics Price Performance

Shares of VKTX stock opened at $29.95 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $34.52 and its 200 day simple moving average is $33.51. The firm has a market cap of $3.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -6.43 and a beta of 0.69. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. has a one year low of $22.96 and a one year high of $43.15.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The biotechnology company reported ($1.10) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($1.21) by $0.11. During the same period last year, the business earned ($0.58) EPS. Viking Therapeutics’s quarterly revenue was up .0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -4.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, COO Marianna Mancini sold 18,217 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.47, for a total value of $609,722.99. Following the sale, the chief operating officer owned 422,760 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,149,777.20. This represents a 4.13% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, CFO Greg Zante sold 21,217 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.47, for a total transaction of $710,132.99. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 212,204 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,102,467.88. The trade was a 9.09% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 187,951 shares of company stock worth $6,268,442. Corporate insiders own 5.30% of the company’s stock.

Viking Therapeutics Profile

Viking Therapeutics, Inc is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on developing therapies for metabolic and endocrine disorders. The company’s research programs target conditions including obesity, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), dyslipidemia and other disorders involving hormone regulation and metabolism.

Viking’s lead program is VK2735, an investigational dual agonist of the glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP) receptors being developed in injectable and oral formulations for obesity and related metabolic conditions.