Ascentis Independent Advisors Purchases New Stake in Viking Holdings Ltd. $VIK

Ascentis Independent Advisors acquired a new position in shares of Viking Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:VIK) in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 9,770 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $718,000.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Viking during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $372,297,000. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Viking by 32.8% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 14,048,357 shares of the company’s stock worth $873,246,000 after purchasing an additional 3,471,244 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Viking by 316.8% in the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 4,426,297 shares of the company’s stock valued at $316,082,000 after purchasing an additional 3,364,265 shares during the last quarter. Dream Peak Capital Ltd purchased a new position in Viking in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $223,744,000. Finally, State Street Corp grew its holdings in Viking by 34,748.5% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 1,812,120 shares of the company’s stock valued at $96,568,000 after purchasing an additional 1,806,920 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.84% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Viking

In other Viking news, EVP Richard Marnell sold 11,287 shares of Viking stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.85, for a total transaction of $1,047,997.95. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 117,050 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $10,868,092.50. The trade was a 8.79% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Jeffrey Dash sold 46,369 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, April 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.23, for a total value of $3,720,184.87. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 420,022 shares in the company, valued at approximately $33,698,365.06. This represents a 9.94% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 63,935 shares of company stock valued at $5,360,351 in the last ninety days.

Viking Trading Down 1.8%

NYSE:VIK opened at $98.17 on Thursday. Viking Holdings Ltd. has a 1 year low of $55.09 and a 1 year high of $105.76. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $91.20 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $80.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.27, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.76. The company has a market cap of $43.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.50, a P/E/G ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.48.

Viking (NYSE:VIK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 14th. The company reported ($0.11) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.11). The company had revenue of $1.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.01 billion. Viking had a return on equity of 149.40% and a net margin of 18.00%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted ($0.24) EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Viking Holdings Ltd. will post 3.28 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have issued reports on VIK. Wall Street Zen downgraded Viking from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, June 20th. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $95.00 price target on Viking and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. Weiss Ratings lowered Viking from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Monday, May 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Viking from $84.00 to $95.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $86.00 price objective (up from $81.00) on shares of Viking in a report on Friday, May 15th. Fourteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Viking presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $97.76.

About Viking

Viking Holdings Ltd engages in the passenger shipping and other forms of passenger transport in North America, the United Kingdom, and internationally. It operates through River and Ocean segments. The company also operates as a tour entrepreneur for passengers and related activities in tourism. As of December 31, 2023, it operated a fleet of 92 ships, including 81 river vessels comprising 58 Longships, 10 smaller classes based on the Longship design, 11 other river vessels, and 1 river vessel charter and the Viking Mississippi; 9 ocean ships; and 2 expedition ships.