Viking Therapeutics (VKTX) AI Stock Analysis

• Market Cap: $3.38B
• Dividend Yield: N/A
• Average Volume (3M): 2.76M
• Price to Earnings (P/E): ―
• Beta (1Y): 1.72
• Revenue Growth: N/A
• EPS Growth: -126.16%
• Country: US
• Employees: 45
• Sector: Healthcare
• Sector Strength: 45
• Industry: Biotechnology
• EPS (TTM): -0.81
• Shares Outstanding: 113,036,350
• 10 Day Avg. Volume: 2,287,404
• 30 Day Avg. Volume: 2,762,277
• PEG Ratio: -3.63
• Price to Book (P/B): 4.98
• Price to Sales (P/S): 0.00
• P/FCF Ratio: -49.98
• Enterprise Value/Market Cap: 0.95
• Enterprise Value/Revenue: N/A
• Enterprise Value/Gross Profit: N/A
• Enterprise Value/Ebitda: -11.75
• 1Y Price Target: $90.20
• Price Target Upside: 206.70% Upside
• Rating Consensus: Strong Buy
• Number of Analyst Covering: 6
• EPS Forecast (FY): -3.75
• Revenue Forecast (FY): N/A

• Rating: 52 Neutral
• Price Target: $29.00 ▼(-1.39% Downside)

Overall score reflects a solid funding/backing profile and encouraging clinical progress from the latest earnings call, partially offset by pre-revenue status with accelerating losses/cash burn and bearish near-term technical momentum.

Positive Factors

Balance sheet strength and liquidity

Substantial cash reserves and minimal debt provide durable funding flexibility to advance registrational trials without immediate financing. This reduces near-term execution risk, supports trial timelines and partnering leverage, and lowers the probability of forced program cuts or urgent dilutive raises.

Clinical de-risking via Phase II success

Successful Phase II results materially de-risk the lead VK2735 program by demonstrating efficacy and tolerability signals. This increases the likelihood that Phase III can produce registrational data, strengthens discussions with partners/regulators, and enhances long-term commercial prospects if replicated.

Differentiated multi-formulation product profile

A dual GLP-1/GIP agent available as both oral and subcutaneous formulations offers structural commercial advantages: broader patient access, flexible maintenance dosing, and differentiation versus single-format competitors, supporting sustained adoption and pricing optionality if approved.

Negative Factors

Pre-revenue status with widening losses

Remaining entirely pre-revenue while R&D-driven losses accelerate creates persistent funding dependency. Over time this pressures strategic choices, may force prioritization across programs, and increases susceptibility to dilution or unfavorable deal terms absent successful commercialization or partnering.

Heavy and deteriorating cash burn

Deepening negative operating and free cash flow reflects escalating trial spend and program expansion. Even with current cash, sustained high burn or trial delays would meaningfully deplete reserves, making future external financing, partnerships, or program trade-offs likely and increasing execution risk.

Negative returns and dilution risk despite equity growth

Rising equity paired with persistently negative ROE signals that invested capital has not generated returns, reflecting ongoing losses. Over the medium term this raises the likelihood management will pursue equity raises or licensing deals, which can dilute existing shareholders and affect long-term return prospects.

Viking Therapeutics Business Overview & Revenue Model

Company Description

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. It also develops VK5211, an orally available non-steroidal selective androgen receptor modulator that is in Phase II clinical trials for the treatment of patients recovering from non-elective hip fracture surgery; VK0612, an orally available Phase IIb-ready drug candidate for type 2 diabetes; and VK0214, an orally available tissue and receptor-subtype selective agonist of the TRß for X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy. The company was incorporated in 2012 and is headquartered in San Diego, California.

How the Company Makes Money

Viking Therapeutics makes money primarily through the development and potential commercialization of its drug candidates. The company generates revenue through strategic partnerships, collaborations, and licensing agreements with other pharmaceutical companies. These partnerships may involve upfront payments, milestone payments, and royalties based on the success and commercialization of its drug candidates. Currently, Viking Therapeutics does not have commercialized products on the market, so its revenue largely depends on funding from investors and partnerships with other companies in the biopharmaceutical industry.

Viking Therapeutics Financial Statement Overview

Summary

Mixed fundamentals for a clinical-stage biotech: the balance sheet is strong with extremely low leverage and substantial equity, but the company remains pre-revenue with widening losses and a sharply higher cash burn in the TTM period.

Income Statement

VKTX remains pre-revenue (zero revenue across annual periods and TTM (Trailing-Twelve-Months)), so profitability is driven by R&D and operating expenses rather than product sales. Losses have widened meaningfully, with net income declining from -$39.5M (2020) to -$110.0M (2024) and -$237.4M in TTM (Trailing-Twelve-Months), indicating a sharply higher cost base. The key strength is that the loss profile is typical for clinical-stage biotech, but the clear weakness is the accelerating pace of losses without offsetting revenue traction in the provided data.

Balance Sheet

The balance sheet is a relative bright spot: leverage is extremely low (debt-to-equity roughly ~0.001–0.011 historically; ~0.001 in both 2024 and TTM (Trailing-Twelve-Months)), providing financial flexibility. Equity has grown substantially versus earlier years (e.g., $145.3M in 2022 to $880.3M in 2024), supporting funding capacity. The main weakness is that returns on equity are consistently negative (TTM (Trailing-Twelve-Months) return on equity about -0.29), reflecting ongoing losses and potential future dilution risk if cash burn persists.

Cash Flow

Cash generation is weak, with operating cash flow and free cash flow consistently negative and deteriorating in magnitude: from -$21.8M (2020) to -$87.8M (2024) and -$224.6M in TTM (Trailing-Twelve-Months). While TTM (Trailing-Twelve-Months) free cash flow growth shows a sharp positive percentage change, this is driven by a larger burn (a worse absolute result), not improvement. A key positive is that free cash flow tracks net income closely (free cash flow to net income of 1.0), suggesting losses are largely reflected in cash flow rather than being masked by non-cash accounting; however, the absolute burn rate is the dominant concern.

Breakdown	TTM	Dec 2024	Dec 2023	Dec 2022	Dec 2021	Dec 2020
Income Statement
Total Revenue	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
Gross Profit	0.00	0.00	-292.00K	0.00	0.00	0.00
EBITDA	-274.39M	-150.57M	-100.53M	-70.06M	-55.39M	-39.11M
Net Income	-237.39M	-109.96M	-85.89M	-68.87M	-54.99M	-39.49M
Balance Sheet
Total Assets	739.41M	908.32M	368.49M	168.53M	210.66M	256.50M
Cash, Cash Equivalents and Short-Term Investments	714.57M	902.61M	362.08M	155.49M	202.10M	248.39M
Total Debt	755.00K	1.12M	1.26M	1.56M	29.00K	359.00K
Total Liabilities	26.39M	28.04M	20.07M	23.21M	8.78M	12.16M
Stockholders Equity	713.03M	880.28M	348.42M	145.32M	201.88M	244.34M
Cash Flow
Free Cash Flow	-224.58M	-87.79M	-73.38M	-48.40M	-47.59M	-21.78M
Operating Cash Flow	-224.58M	-87.79M	-73.38M	-48.40M	-47.59M	-21.78M
Investing Cash Flow	272.36M	-553.37M	-179.09M	54.75M	37.96M	41.57M
Financing Cash Flow	2.34M	612.46M	271.38M	4.16M	6.88M	950.00K

Viking Therapeutics Technical Analysis

• Technical Analysis Sentiment: Negative
• Last Price: 29.41
• 50DMA: Negative
• 100DMA: Negative
• 200DMA: Negative
• MACD: Positive
• RSI: Neutral
• STOCH: Positive

Evaluating momentum and price trends is crucial in stock analysis to make informed investment decisions. For VKTX, the sentiment is Negative. The current price of 29.41 is below the 20-day moving average (MA) of 31.81, below the 50-day MA of 34.24, and below the 200-day MA of 31.19, indicating a bearish trend. The MACD of -1.30 indicates Positive momentum. The RSI at 37.27 is Neutral, neither overbought nor oversold. The STOCH value of 12.05 is Positive, not indicating any strong overbought or oversold conditions. Overall, these indicators collectively point to a Negative sentiment for VKTX.

Viking Therapeutics Peers Comparison

Name	Overall Rating	Market Cap	P/E Ratio	ROE	Dividend Yield	Revenue Growth	EPS Growth
XENE	59 Neutral	$3.20B	-10.84	-45.14%	―	―	-38.30%
IMVT	56 Neutral	$5.25B	-9.12	-95.93%	―	―	-27.70%
NAMS	55 Neutral	$3.58B	-16.16	-39.94%	―	―	―
VKTX	52 Neutral	$3.38B	-13.88	-29.23%	―	―	-126.16%
Sector *	51 Neutral	$7.86B	-0.30	-43.30%	2.27%	22.53%	-2.21%
SRRK	50 Neutral	$4.75B	-14.75	-218.04%	―	―	-31.71%
RARE	47 Neutral	$2.39B	-4.18	-325.76%	―	20.63%	8.09%