Wall Street Sees a Huge Rebound for Viking Therapeutics. Here's Why Analysts Are So Optimistic.
The weight loss market is highly competitive, but Viking only needs to carve out a small niche in it with VK2735 in order to generate significant value for investors.
Overview
Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ: VKTX) is a much-loved stock on Wall Street. It's trading at around $30 a share at the time of this writing, but the analyst consensus target price on Visible Alpha is $90.89, with nine brokers rating it the equivalent of a buy and only one with a neutral rating on the stock.
Investors are hoping Viking's dual GLP-1 and GIP agonist, VK2735, can break into the effective duopoly on weight loss drugs held by Eli Lilly's (NYSE: LLY) Zepbound (tirzepatide) and Novo Nordisk's (NYSE: NVO) Wegovy (semaglutide). VK2735 and tirzepatide are dual agonists, while semaglutide is a mono-agonist targeting the GLP-1 receptor. I'll return to this point in a moment.
Details
Two key factors suggest VK2735 could carve out a very profitable share of the market. The first is that it's being developed as a dual formulation therapy, opening up the possibility of initial weight loss from taking subcutaneous (injectable) VK2735 before switching to a more convenient oral VK2735 dose for maintenance. In addition, as an Oppenheimer analyst recently noted, oral VK2735 could also be taken after initial dosing with injectable tirzepatide and semaglutide. The second factor is the potential for a steeper onset of weight loss from VK2735.
Source
Originally published at www.fool.com.