Vistra’s (VST) Buy (B) Rating Reiterated at Weiss Ratings

Weiss Ratings restated their buy (b) rating on shares of Vistra (NYSE:VST) in a report published on Wednesday morning,Weiss Ratings reports.

VST has been the subject of a number of other research reports. UBS Group upped their price objective on Vistra from $207.00 to $230.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on Vistra from $227.00 to $248.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 24th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $230.00 price objective (down previously from $241.00) on shares of Vistra in a research report on Monday, September 22nd. Wall Street Zen cut Vistra from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, September 5th. Finally, Daiwa America upgraded Vistra from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 17th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Vistra currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $227.85.

Vistra Stock Down 6.1%

VST stock opened at $197.17 on Wednesday. Vistra has a 1-year low of $90.51 and a 1-year high of $219.82. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $200.48 and a 200-day moving average price of $172.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.58, a current ratio of 0.90 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $66.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.45, a P/E/G ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.33.

Vistra (NYSE:VST) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.63 by ($0.62). Vistra had a return on equity of 108.41% and a net margin of 12.90%.The business had revenue of $4.25 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.15 billion. Equities analysts forecast that Vistra will post 7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Vistra Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 19th were given a $0.226 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 19th. This is a positive change from Vistra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. This represents a $0.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. Vistra’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 14.35%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Vistra news, CEO James A. Burke sold 21,365 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $207.55, for a total value of $4,434,305.75. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer owned 269,368 shares in the company, valued at $55,907,328.40. This represents a 7.35% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Insiders sold a total of 463,350 shares of company stock valued at $95,374,138 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 1.42% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Vistra

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Vistra by 1.4% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 16,660,027 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,228,880,000 after acquiring an additional 226,514 shares during the period. Lone Pine Capital LLC boosted its stake in shares of Vistra by 40.5% in the second quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC now owns 6,469,719 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,253,896,000 after acquiring an additional 1,864,931 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its stake in shares of Vistra by 4.4% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 6,175,553 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,196,884,000 after acquiring an additional 258,983 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Vistra in the second quarter worth about $930,080,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Vistra by 25.2% in the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,537,384 shares of the company’s stock worth $879,390,000 after acquiring an additional 913,350 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.88% of the company’s stock.

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 states in the United States and the District of Columbia.