Short Target Viking Therapeutics Wins Over Only Cautious Analyst

Short-seller target Viking Therapeutics Inc. got a boost from Wall Street on Friday as the only cautious analyst upgraded the stock to a buy.

Viking shares climbed as much as 5.8 percent in New York after SVB Leerink analyst Pasha Sarraf raised his rating to outperform from market perform and more than doubled his 12-month price target to $21 from $10. All nine analysts tracked by Bloomberg now recommend buying shares even as bearish bets on Viking have risen to 47 percent of the available float, according to data from financial analytics firm S3 Partners.