Viking Therapeutics (VKTX) Stock Forecast & Price Target

Viking Therapeutics is viewed positively because its maintenance data showed strong efficacy, with 17.8% weight loss at wk 21 on 17.5mg and 21.7% by wk 33 in the continued-weekly cohort, while retention reached up to 97% and tolerability was essentially placebo-like. The absence of a plateau at 33 wks suggests meaningful headroom for the ph.III VANQUISH doses, and the expansion to 8 subQ maintenance cohorts with data expected in 3Q26 adds another important catalyst. Although 1Q26 EPS was ($1.37) versus consensus of ($0.98) on about $150M of R&D expense, the $603M cash balance provides runway into 2028, supporting execution across VK2735, VK2809, and VK0214.

Viking Therapeutics is facing a deteriorating fundamental outlook as Ligand’s April 24, 2026 termination of the THR-β license agreement raises legal, strategic, and development-risk concerns around VK2809 and VK0214, both of which depend on that partnership for key commercialization economics. Although VK2809 showed strong phase 2 data in 2024, the dispute suggests Viking may have failed to meet commercially reasonable development obligations, while the agreement’s potential obligations included up to $75.0M per indication in milestones and low-to-mid single-digit royalties, pressuring future economics and creating uncertainty for the pipeline. More broadly, the company still faces high execution risk from delayed Phase 3 starts, enrollment or regulatory barriers, and commercialization constraints tied to manufacturing scale and API costs for VK2735.