We recently published an article titled These 10 Stocks Defied Tuesday's Bloodbath. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) stands against the other stocks.

The stock market fell further into negative territory on Tuesday as trade tensions between the US and its largest trading partners continued.

The Dow Jones fell the most, losing 1.55 percent, while the S&P 500 declined 1.22 percent. The Nasdaq dropped by 0.35 percent.

Following the start of President Donald Trump’s blanket 25-percent tax on goods from Canada and Mexico on Tuesday, and a 10-percent tax on Chinese imports, both Canada and China moved to retaliate with higher taxes on US imports. Mexico is also expected to follow suit.

Despite uncertainties, 10 companies managed to stay stronger, posting impressive gains mostly on the back of better earnings performance. In this article, we have detailed the reasons behind their gains.

To come up with Tuesday’s top gainers, we considered only the stocks with $2 billion in market capitalization and $5 million in daily trading volume.

A microbiologist in protective gear studying samples in a laboratory.

Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX)

Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) grew its share prices by 9.30 percent on Tuesday to close at $28.09 apiece as investors gobbled up shares in the company in hopes that it would announce new developments in two investor conferences this month.

In a statement, Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX) said it would participate in Leerink Partners Global Health Conference on March 10 to 12, and in Jefferies Biotech on the Beach Summit from March 11 to 12, both in Miami, Florida.

Latest reports about the company surfaced that pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) is set to take over Viking Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VKTX), and Morgan Stanley has been tapped as its advisor for the acquisition.

The rumors came days after the company released its earnings performance in the fourth quarter of the year, widening its net loss by 44 percent to $35.4 million from the $24.6 million in the same period a year earlier primarily due to the increase in research and development expenses and general and administrative expenses, partially offset by an increase in interest income.

Net loss for full-year 2024 also widened by 28 percent to $109.96 million from $85.895 million in 2023.

Overall VKTX ranks 9th on our list of Tuesday's top gainers. While we acknowledge the potential of VKTX as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than VKTX but trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

 

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.