William Blair Weighs in on Viking Therapeutics, Inc.’s Q2 2024 Earnings (NASDAQ:VKTX)

Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) – Investment analysts at William Blair boosted their Q2 2024 EPS estimates for shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, April 24th. William Blair analyst A. Hsieh now expects that the biotechnology company will earn ($0.17) per share for the quarter, up from their previous estimate of ($0.28). William Blair has a “Outperform” rating on the stock. The consensus estimate for Viking Therapeutics’ current full-year earnings is ($1.05) per share. William Blair also issued estimates for Viking Therapeutics’ Q3 2024 earnings at ($0.20) EPS, Q4 2024 earnings at ($0.21) EPS, FY2024 earnings at ($0.85) EPS, Q1 2025 earnings at ($0.23) EPS, Q2 2025 earnings at ($0.23) EPS, Q3 2025 earnings at ($0.25) EPS, Q4 2025 earnings at ($0.25) EPS, FY2025 earnings at ($0.96) EPS and FY2026 earnings at ($1.12) EPS.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 24th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.26) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.27) by $0.01. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($0.25) earnings per share.

Several other equities analysts also recently commented on the company. Oppenheimer boosted their price objective on Viking Therapeutics from $116.00 to $138.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. StockNews.com raised Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday. BTIG Research increased their price objective on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $100.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Raymond James boosted their target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $37.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 27th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. They set a “buy” rating and a $110.00 target price for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Viking Therapeutics currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $112.25.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of Viking Therapeutics stock opened at $74.31 on Monday. Viking Therapeutics has a fifty-two week low of $8.28 and a fifty-two week high of $99.41. The company has a market capitalization of $8.19 billion, a P/E ratio of -79.90 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a fifty day moving average of $69.11 and a 200 day moving average of $35.56.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Caas Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the first quarter valued at approximately $2,706,000. K.J. Harrison & Partners Inc purchased a new position in Viking Therapeutics during the 1st quarter valued at $328,000. LifeSteps Financial Inc. bought a new position in Viking Therapeutics in the 1st quarter valued at $37,000. Lindbrook Capital LLC increased its stake in Viking Therapeutics by 370.7% in the first quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 353 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 278 shares during the period. Finally, Gainplan LLC bought a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics during the first quarter worth $246,000. Institutional investors own 76.03% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Viking Therapeutics

In other Viking Therapeutics news, Director Sarah Kathryn Rouan sold 25,000 shares of Viking Therapeutics stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.05, for a total value of $701,250.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Brian Lian sold 269,079 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.87, for a total transaction of $7,230,152.73. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,184,882 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $58,707,779.34. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Sarah Kathryn Rouan sold 25,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.05, for a total value of $701,250.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 329,079 shares of company stock valued at $8,769,653. 4.70% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.