Legato Capital Management LLC Has $290,000 Holdings in Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX)

Legato Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) by 36.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 7,200 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,905 shares during the quarter. Legato Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Viking Therapeutics were worth $290,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Signaturefd LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 16.2% during the third quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 1,351 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $86,000 after purchasing an additional 188 shares during the period. Stone House Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 66.7% during the third quarter. Stone House Investment Management LLC now owns 500 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $32,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the period. Keudell Morrison Wealth Management lifted its holdings in shares of Viking Therapeutics by 5.9% during the third quarter. Keudell Morrison Wealth Management now owns 4,306 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock worth $273,000 after purchasing an additional 241 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 124.6% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 438 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $28,000 after buying an additional 243 shares during the period. Finally, S.A. Mason LLC lifted its holdings in Viking Therapeutics by 20.0% in the fourth quarter. S.A. Mason LLC now owns 1,800 shares of the biotechnology company’s stock valued at $72,000 after buying an additional 300 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.03% of the company’s stock.

Viking Therapeutics Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VKTX opened at $30.48 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $3.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -30.48 and a beta of 0.90. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $28.64 and a fifty-two week high of $99.41. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $37.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $52.88.

Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ:VKTX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 5th. The biotechnology company reported ($0.32) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.27) by ($0.05). During the same quarter last year, the business posted ($0.25) earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Viking Therapeutics, Inc. will post -1.41 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Viking Therapeutics

In other news, COO Marianna Mancini sold 54,215 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.75, for a total value of $2,317,691.25. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 374,134 shares in the company, valued at $15,994,228.50. This represents a 12.66 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Greg Zante sold 50,309 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $42.75, for a total transaction of $2,150,709.75. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 165,259 shares in the company, valued at $7,064,822.25. The trade was a 23.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 299,014 shares of company stock worth $12,782,849. Insiders own 4.70% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on VKTX shares. HC Wainwright restated a “buy” rating and issued a $102.00 target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Thursday, February 6th. William Blair restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Citigroup started coverage on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Friday, February 7th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $38.00 target price on the stock. Maxim Group dropped their target price on shares of Viking Therapeutics from $120.00 to $70.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 7th. Finally, B. Riley restated a “buy” rating and issued a $96.00 target price (down previously from $109.00) on shares of Viking Therapeutics in a report on Friday, February 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, thirteen have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Viking Therapeutics presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $97.29.

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.