Short-seller target Viking Therapeutics Inc. got a boost from Wall Street on Friday as the only cautious analyst upgraded the stock to a buy.
Viking shares climbed as much as 5.8 percent in New York after SVB Leerink analyst Pasha Sarraf raised his rating to outperform from market perform and more than doubled his 12-month price target to $21 from $10. All nine analysts tracked by Bloomberg now recommend buying shares even as bearish bets on Viking have risen to 47 percent of the available float, according to data from financial analytics firm S3 Partners.
The drugmaker is among companies racing to introduce the first treatments for the fatty liver disease known as NASH. Sarraf, who started covering the stock in February, said data this week that showed a low dose of Viking’s drug worked at least as well as higher doses were “persuasive.” The company will probably start a mid-stage study in NASH with “minor to no restrictions on who they will be allowed to study,” he said.
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