Assetmark Inc. Has $664,000 Stock Position in Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX)

Assetmark Inc. grew its position in Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) by 712.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 10,489 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after buying an additional 9,198 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc.’s holdings in Viking Therapeutics were worth $664,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Blue Trust Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Viking Therapeutics in the third quarter valued at about $26,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 124.6% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 438 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 243 shares in the last quarter. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. bought a new stake in Viking Therapeutics during the second quarter worth about $27,000. Gilliland Jeter Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in Viking Therapeutics during the third quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV raised its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 84.3% during the third quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 553 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 253 shares in the last quarter. 76.03% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on VKTX. JPMorgan Chase & Co. began coverage on Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $80.00 price target on the stock. StockNews.com raised Viking Therapeutics to a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Oppenheimer reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $138.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Raymond James upped their target price on Viking Therapeutics from $116.00 to $118.00 and gave the company a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 25th. Finally, HC Wainwright upped their target price on Viking Therapeutics from $90.00 to $102.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $109.80.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Down 7.4 %

VKTX opened at $49.58 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $5.53 billion, a P/E ratio of -53.31 and a beta of 1.00. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $64.60 and its two-hundred day moving average is $61.42. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $10.34 and a 52 week high of $99.41.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 23rd. The biotechnology company reported ($0.22) earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.24) by $0.02. During the same period last year, the firm posted ($0.23) earnings per share. Equities analysts anticipate that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -0.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Viking Therapeutics

In other news, Director J Matthew Singleton sold 16,000 shares of the business’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 transaction, the director now directly owns 9,500 shares in the company, valued at $591,090. The trade was a 62.75 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Brian Lian sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.90, for a total value of $69,900.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 2,354,927 shares in the company, valued at approximately $164,609,397.30. This represents a 0.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 506,687 shares of company stock worth $36,029,679 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

Viking Therapeutics 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.