7 Best Mid-Cap Healthcare Stocks To Buy Now

3. Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 52

Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) is a California-based company that develops novel therapies for metabolic and endocrine disorders. The company is among our best mid-cap healthcare stocks to buy now. At a stake value of $1.03 billion, 52 hedge funds held positions in Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) in Q1. VenBio Select Advisor initiated a position in the biotech company and is the most prominent shareholder in the company with a position worth $294.380 million, as of Q1.

On May 16, Raymond James analyst Steven Seedhouse upgraded Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) to Strong Buy from Outperform and increased the price target to $116 from $115. The analyst mentioned that the company’s dual GLP-1/GIP receptor agonist VK2735 “appears to be holding up against the biggest competitive overhang” after the competitor, Roche, announced data for its weekly subcutaneous injectable, dual GLP-1/GIP receptor agonist, CT-388.

ClearBridge Investments stated the following regarding Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:

“Finally, not owning biotech Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) for the entire period, another large benchmark weight, which appreciated significantly on GLP-1 potential and which we purchased in March, accounted for another 10% of the underperformance.

Encouragingly, we are seeing underlying improvements from companies we do own in the portfolio, with several being recent portfolio additions or subjects of repositioning work executed in 2023.

The first quarter represented another period of fruitful new idea generation with nine new investments. Consistent with historical practice, these initial investments represent modest position sizes that we intend to build over time.

Viking Therapeutics is focused on metabolic and endocrine diseases. While still early stage, the company has had positive Phase 2 data on a GLP-1/GIP agonist injectable candidate potentially differentiated in mechanism with encouraging results relative to existing approved/pipeline candidates. The company is also pursuing an oral obesity GLP-1/GIP treatment and has a Phase 2 compound to treat nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, or NASH. Given the strong growth potential in the obesity market, multiple potential products and scarcity value in the small cap universe, we believe this is an attractive potential opportunity with sufficient capital to support near-term clinical development goals.”