The weight-loss drug competition just got a lot smaller
Viking Therapeutics Inc (NASDAQ:VKTX) stock is up 10.1% to trade at $24.42 today, and traded as high as $27.09 earlier in the session. The drugmaker is on the move after Pfizer (PFE) halted the development of its weight-loss pill. Viking has two weight-loss drug candidates that have shown promising results in Phase 1 and 2 trials late last year. Sector peers Eli Lilly (LLY) and Novo Nordisk (NVO) -- two heavy hitters in the weight-loss treatment department -- are also higher today.
VKTX is still down 39.3% in 2025, hitting a more than 12-month bottom of $18.92 on April 9. Today's breakout has the shares testing their descending 50-day moving average, an overhead trendline in place since early November. Longer term, the equity is down 65% year-over-year.
Options activity is almost exclusively focused on calls. VKTX's 10-day call/put volume ratio of 14.71 over at the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX), sits higher than 90% of annual readings.
Today is more of the same. At last check, over 16,000 calls have changed hands, volume that's 6 times the average intraday amount and more than 5 times the number of puts traded. The April 30 call is the most popular, as is the May 35 call.