Aptus Capital Advisors LLC Purchases 9,699 Shares of Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX)

Aptus Capital Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX - Free Report) by 34.1% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 38,143 shares of the biotechnology company's stock after buying an additional 9,699 shares during the period. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC's holdings in Viking Therapeutics were worth $2,415,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Oak Ridge Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the third quarter worth $837,000. Nvwm LLC bought a new position in Viking Therapeutics in the third quarter valued at approximately $999,000. Chartwell Investment Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 88.0% during the 3rd quarter. Chartwell Investment Partners LLC now owns 36,666 shares of the biotechnology company's stock worth $2,322,000 after purchasing an additional 17,159 shares in the last quarter. Nepsis Inc. bought a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the third quarter valued at $11,251,000. Finally, Fiera Capital Corp bought a new stake in Viking Therapeutics during the third quarter worth $18,443,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.03% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Viking Therapeutics

In other news, Director J Matthew Singleton sold 16,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $62.22, for a total transaction of $995,520.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 9,500 shares of the company's stock, valued at $591,090. This represents a 62.75 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Brian Lian sold 112,870 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.80, for a total transaction of $7,426,846.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 2,354,927 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $154,954,196.60. This trade represents a 4.57 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 506,687 shares of company stock valued at $36,029,679. 4.70% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and set a $105.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Thursday, September 12th. Raymond James boosted their price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $116.00 to $118.00 and gave the company a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Thursday, July 25th. HC Wainwright lifted their price objective on Viking Therapeutics from $90.00 to $102.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Monday, November 4th. StockNews.com raised shares of Viking Therapeutics to a "sell" rating in a report on Tuesday, October 15th. Finally, Oppenheimer restated an "outperform" rating and set a $138.00 price target on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $109.80.

Viking Therapeutics Trading Down 2.7 %

NASDAQ VKTX traded down $1.49 on Thursday, reaching $53.57. 3,790,739 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,530,367. The firm has a market capitalization of $5.97 billion, a PE ratio of -58.61 and a beta of 1.00. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. has a one year low of $10.34 and a one year high of $99.41. The company's 50-day simple moving average is $64.72 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $61.66.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 23rd. The biotechnology company reported ($0.22) earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of ($0.24) by $0.02. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted ($0.23) earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -0.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.