Head to Head Survey: Polar Power (NASDAQ:POLA) and Vistra (NYSE:VST)

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

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Vistra and Polar Power, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Vistra	0	1	12	3	3.13
Polar Power	1	0	0	0	1.00

Vistra presently has a consensus target price of $236.40, indicating a potential upside of 48.90%. Given Vistra’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts plainly believe Vistra is more favorable than Polar Power.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

90.9% of Vistra shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 26.1% of Polar Power shares are held by institutional investors. 1.4% of Vistra shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 30.8% of Polar Power shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Vistra and Polar Power”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Vistra	$17.74 billion	3.03	$944.00 million	$2.17	73.16
Polar Power	$13.97 million	0.27	-$4.68 million	($2.24)	-0.64

Vistra has higher revenue and earnings than Polar Power. Polar Power is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Vistra, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility and Risk

Vistra has a beta of 1.42, meaning that its stock price is 42% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Polar Power has a beta of 1.39, meaning that its stock price is 39% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Vistra	5.32%	81.09%	5.25%
Polar Power	-104.14%	-135.21%	-55.02%

Summary

Vistra beats Polar Power on 14 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

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. 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 4 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.

About Polar Power

Polar Power, Inc. designs, manufactures, and sells direct current (DC) power generators, renewable energy, and cooling systems in the United States and internationally. The company offers DC base power systems, DC hybrid power systems, DC solar hybrid power systems, and mobile power systems. Its DC power systems are available in diesel, natural gas, LPG/propane, and renewable fuel formats. It serves customers in the telecommunications, military, commercial, industrial, and marine markets. In addition, the company sells its products through a direct sales force, and independent service providers and dealers. The company was formerly known as Polar Products, Inc. and changed its name to Polar Power, Inc. in October 1991. Polar Power, Inc. was incorporated in 1979 and is based in Gardena, California.