New York State Common Retirement Fund Acquires 609 Shares of Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX)

New York State Common Retirement Fund raised its holdings in Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) by 1.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 39,321 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 609 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Viking Therapeutics were worth $732,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 3.4% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 5,284,352 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $58,498,000 after purchasing an additional 171,995 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 59.6% during the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,202,228 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $24,379,000 after purchasing an additional 822,156 shares in the last quarter. Deerfield Management Company L.P. Series C boosted its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 13.7% during the third quarter. Deerfield Management Company L.P. Series C now owns 1,279,000 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $14,159,000 after purchasing an additional 154,000 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 4.7% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 864,589 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $9,571,000 after purchasing an additional 38,695 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 194.6% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 765,320 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $8,472,000 after purchasing an additional 505,578 shares in the last quarter. 76.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Oppenheimer lifted their price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $116.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. BTIG Research boosted their price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $100.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. William Blair reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $80.00 price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Friday, March 15th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, April 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Viking Therapeutics currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $112.25.

Viking Therapeutics Trading Down 1.8 %

Shares of VKTX stock opened at $72.35 on Tuesday. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $8.28 and a 1 year high of $99.41. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $73.04 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $40.72. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.98 billion, a P/E ratio of -77.79 and a beta of 1.12.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.26) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.27) by $0.01. During the same quarter last year, the business earned ($0.25) earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -1.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Viking Therapeutics

In other news, COO Marianna Mancini sold 281,425 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.66, for a total transaction of $22,136,890.50. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 348,508 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,413,639.28. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, COO Marianna Mancini sold 281,425 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, May 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.66, for a total transaction of $22,136,890.50. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 348,508 shares in the company, valued at approximately $27,413,639.28. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Greg Zante sold 66,756 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $74.69, for a total transaction of $4,986,005.64. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 174,854 shares in the company, valued at $13,059,845.26. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 4.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.