Why Viking Therapeutics Inc. (VKTX) Went Down on Monday

We recently published an article titled These 10 Companies Led Monday’s Downturn. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Viking Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) stands against the other stocks.

Wall Street’s major indices kicked off the trading on a positive note, all finishing in the green territory, as investors brushed off fears of growing global trade tensions.

The Dow Jones rose by 0.38 percent, the S&P 500 grew 0.67 percent, while the Nasdaq rallied 0.98 percent.

However, 10 companies defied a broader market optimism, mostly due to a series of stock rating downgrades from investment research companies on the back of poor earnings guidance and dismal earnings performance.

To come up with Monday’s worst performers, we considered only the stocks with at least $2 billion in market capitalization and $5 million in daily trading volume.

A microbiologist in protective gear studying samples in a laboratory.

Viking Therapeutics Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX)

Viking Therapeutics Inc. dropped its share prices by 7.34 percent on Monday to end at $30.17 apiece as investors reacted negatively to two investment firms’ significant dropping of their price targets for the company.

On Friday, Maxim lowered its price target for VKTX by 42 percent to $70 from $120 previously, citing the company’s wider-than-expected loss per share in the fourth quarter of 2024.

Meanwhile, B. Riley also lowered its price target for VKTX to $96 from $109, representing an 11-percent cut, while keeping the “buy” rating on the shares.

Despite a disappointing earnings performance, B. Riley noted that it was especially impressed by the strong results from its potential weight loss asset VK2735, which could potentially become a groundbreaking development in the field.

VKTX initiated the phase 2 clinical trial of the oral tablet formulation of VK2735 in January this year, testing 280 enrolled obese adults for 13 weeks.

Overall VKTX ranks 4th on our list of Monday’s worst performers. While we acknowledge the potential of VKTX as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is as promising as VKTX but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and Complete List of 59 AI Companies Under $2 Billion in Market Cap.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.