Reviewing Uniper (OTCMKTS:UNPRF) & Vistra (NYSE:VST)

Uniper (OTCMKTS:UNPRF) and Vistra (NYSE:VST) are both utilities companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their valuation, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, risk and earnings.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

91.3% of Vistra shares are held by institutional investors. 1.4% of Vistra shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current recommendations for Uniper and Vistra, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Uniper	1	0	0	0	1.00
Vistra	0	0	3	0	3.00

Vistra has a consensus price target of $39.67, indicating a potential upside of 23.88%. Given Vistra’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Vistra is more favorable than Uniper.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Uniper and Vistra’s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Uniper	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Vistra	$13.73 billion	0.86	-$1.23 billion	$3.66	8.75

Uniper has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Vistra.

Profitability

This table compares Uniper and Vistra’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Uniper	N/A	N/A	N/A
Vistra	9.60%	22.75%	2.30%

Summary

Vistra beats Uniper on 9 of the 9 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Uniper

Uniper SE operates as an energy company. It operates in three segments: European Generation, Global Commodities, and Russian Power Generation. The company owns and operates various power and heat generation facilities, including fossil fuel power plants, such as coal, gas, oil, and combined gas and steam; and hydroelectric, nuclear, biomass, photovoltaic, and wind power plants. It also markets energy services comprising fuel procurement, and engineering and asset management, as well as operational and maintenance services; and procures fuels, trades in emission allowances, and markets electricity. In addition, the company engages in the sale of individual power and natural gas to resellers, industrial customers, and power plant operators; energy trading activities; infrastructure investments and gas storage operations; fuel procurement for power plants; operation and management of the plants; and trade and sale of energy. Further, it trades in commodities, which comprise power, natural gas, liquefied natural gas, and coal and freight solutions; provides district heating and online gas dispatch services; operates gas storage and power-to-gas facilities in Germany, Austria, and the United Kingdom; and owns and operates marine fuel oils production facility in Fujairah. It operates in Germany, the United Kingdom, the Russian Federation, rest of Europe, and internationally. The company was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany. Uniper SE operates as a subsidiary of Ubg Uniper Beteiligungsholding Gmbh.

About Vistra

Vistra Corp., together with its subsidiaries, operates as an integrated retail electricity and power generation company. The company operates through six segments: Retail, Texas, East, West, Sunset, and Asset Closure. It retails electricity and natural gas to residential, commercial, and industrial customers across 20 states in the United States and the District of Columbia. In addition, the company is involved in the electricity generation, wholesale energy purchases and sales, commodity risk management, fuel production, and fuel logistics management activities. It serves approximately 3.5 million customers with a generation capacity of approximately 37,000 megawatts with a portfolio of natural gas, nuclear, coal, solar, and battery energy storage facilities. The company was formerly known as Vistra Energy Corp. and changed its name to Vistra Corp. in July 2020. Vistra Corp. was founded in 1882 and is based in Irving, Texas.