Viking Therapeutics Shares Start Year at $18 and Now Trade For $72: Here’s Why the Company is Up Over 300% YTD.

Viking Therapeutics (VKTX) was a meek stock when the year started that traded around $18 and today as the stock boosts a 21% return on its recent Q3 earnings is trading around $75. So how did this PRISM Weight Loss Index company get to where it is today and why?

The stock saw most of its price appreciation at the end of February when shares rose around 120%. This came on news of positive top-line results from its Phase 2 VENTURE Trial of dual GLP-1/GIP receptor agonist VK2735 for patients with obesity. In tandem with the report Viking announced a public offering of $350M of shares of its common stock. Both of Viking’s key assets had seemed to outperform their competitors in two major high-revenue markets. After spending decades focused on oncology and rare disease treatments, the pharmaceutical industry is now shifting back to lower-priced, higher-volume primary care medications, particularly those targeting obesity which put Viking in the spotlight with the potential to become a significant player in the emerging space.

Since March the stock has held up and typically trades between $50-$65. In the company’s recent earning announcement Viking CEO Brian Lian , Ph.D. stated, “The first three quarters of 2024 have been a productive period for Viking, with positive results announced from four different clinical trials and promising initial findings reported from a new preclinical program. The company recently announced positive results from a Phase 1b clinical trial of VK0214 in patients with X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy. Results from this study showed VK0214 to be safe and well-tolerated following once-daily dosing over the 28-day study period.  In addition, significant reductions were observed in plasma levels of very long-chain fatty acids and other lipids.  Moving forward, with $930 million in cash and equivalents, we believe we have the financial resources to achieve multiple important milestones with our clinical programs.”