Shares of Viking Therapeutics (NASDAQ: VKTX) jumped 12.5% through 11:40 a.m. ET on Tuesday on further support from Wall Street analysts.

Viking stock inched higher Monday after Truist Securities analyst Joon Lee lowered his price target, while predicting the company will benefit from phase 3 clinical trial news on its new VK2735 weigh loss drug. Today, the shares are advancing by leaps and bounds on an even more positive endorsement from Cantor Fitzgerald's Steven Seedhouse, who says the stock is a buy, and predicts the $29 price will roughly quadruple to hit $104 within a year.

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Cantor Fitzgerald loves Viking Therapeutics

Seedhouse doesn't beat around the bush: "Our thesis is entirely focused on lead [injectable] drug, VK2735, a GLP-1/GIP dual agonist entering phase 3 development for general obesity."

The fact that Viking is also looking to develop a VK2735 pill that would eliminate needles from the process, and that the company will have phase 2 data on that pill ready in the second quarter of 2025, is a plus for the analyst's buy thesis. But just getting VK2735 ready in injectable form alone would be enough of a win to more than treble the stock's value, according to this analyst.

Is Viking Therapeutics stock a buy?

Why is Seedhouse so excited about VK2735? Without going too far into the pharmaceutical weeds, the analyst argues that its formulation is better than Eli Lilly's (NYSE: LLY) tirzepatide, in particular by being more potent. According to TheFly.com, Seedhouse thinks it will outperform Lilly's Zepbound and Mounjaro, and argues that if he's right, "there is simply no way the market won't accommodate its rise to multi-blockbuster status."

All that being said, until the actual clinical trial data comes out, it's impossible to say for sure that the drug will be a success, or that Viking Therapeutics stock will go up as far and as fast as this analyst predicts. You pays your money and you takes your chances.

My advice, though, is still to view the stock as speculative and stay diversified.

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Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Viking Therapeutics. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Why Viking Therapeutics Stock Popped Again Today was originally published by The Motley Fool

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