Investors Purchase High Volume of Put Options on Viking (NYSE:VIK)

Viking Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:VIK) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Investors acquired 4,199 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 144% compared to the typical volume of 1,720 put options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Richard Marnell sold 6,120 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $94.30, for a total value of $577,116.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 110,930 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,460,699. This represents a 5.23% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Jeffrey Dash sold 46,369 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.23, for a total transaction of $3,720,184.87. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 420,022 shares in the company, valued at approximately $33,698,365.06. This represents a 9.94% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 63,935 shares of company stock valued at $5,360,351 in the last ninety days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. LifeGoal Investments LLC bought a new stake in shares of Viking during the second quarter valued at approximately $316,000. Orser Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Viking in the second quarter worth $3,061,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its position in Viking by 18.3% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 938 shares of the company’s stock valued at $98,000 after buying an additional 145 shares during the period. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division boosted its holdings in shares of Viking by 13.9% during the 2nd quarter. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division now owns 12,175 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,274,000 after buying an additional 1,489 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CoreCap Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Viking by 132,150.0% during the 2nd quarter. CoreCap Advisors LLC now owns 2,645 shares of the company’s stock valued at $277,000 after buying an additional 2,643 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 98.84% of the company’s stock.

Viking Trading Up 3.2%

NYSE VIK traded up $3.12 on Thursday, hitting $101.09. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 302,635 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,884,593. The firm has a market cap of $45.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.51, a PEG ratio of 1.45 and a beta of 1.48. Viking has a 52-week low of $55.55 and a 52-week high of $105.76. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $91.20 and its 200 day simple moving average is $80.21. The company has a current ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.27.

Viking (NYSE:VIK) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 14th. The company reported ($0.11) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of ($0.11). The firm had revenue of $1.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.01 billion. Viking had a return on equity of 149.40% and a net margin of 18.00%.The business’s revenue was up 17.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned ($0.24) earnings per share. Research analysts predict that Viking will post 3.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company raised Viking from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $79.00 to $109.00 in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Susquehanna raised their price target on Viking from $100.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Friday, May 15th. Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on Viking in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $120.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $86.00 price objective (up from $81.00) on shares of Viking in a research report on Friday, May 15th. Finally, Citigroup restated a “buy” rating on shares of Viking in a report on Friday, May 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, thirteen have issued a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $97.76.

Viking Company Profile

Viking Holdings Ltd engages in the passenger shipping and other forms of passenger transport in North America, the United Kingdom, and internationally. It operates through River and Ocean segments. The company also operates as a tour entrepreneur for passengers and related activities in tourism. As of December 31, 2023, it operated a fleet of 92 ships, including 81 river vessels comprising 58 Longships, 10 smaller classes based on the Longship design, 11 other river vessels, and 1 river vessel charter and the Viking Mississippi; 9 ocean ships; and 2 expedition ships.