Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.01 EPS

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday. The biotechnology company reported ($0.26) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.27) by $0.01, Briefing.com reports. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted ($0.25) EPS.

Viking Therapeutics Trading Up 7.9 %

VKTX stock opened at $74.31 on Friday. Viking Therapeutics has a 12-month low of $8.28 and a 12-month high of $99.41. The company has a 50 day moving average of $68.35 and a two-hundred day moving average of $34.79.

Insider Transactions at Viking Therapeutics

In other Viking Therapeutics news, CEO Brian Lian sold 35,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.95, for a total value of $838,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,264,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $54,243,923.90. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other news, Director Sarah Kathryn Rouan sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.05, for a total transaction of $701,250.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Brian Lian sold 35,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.95, for a total transaction of $838,250.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,264,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $54,243,923.90. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 329,079 shares of company stock worth $8,769,653 in the last 90 days. 4.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on VKTX. BTIG Research boosted their target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $100.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. HC Wainwright reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $90.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Thursday. Maxim Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $120.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Friday, March 15th. Truist Financial lifted their price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $32.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Finally, William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $112.25.

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.