Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) Receives $87.83 Average Target Price from Analysts

Shares of Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) have been assigned an average rating of “Buy” from the seven research firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $87.83.

VST has been the subject of several recent research reports. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Vistra from $79.00 to $109.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 10th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Vistra from $85.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 9th. Guggenheim raised shares of Vistra to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Vistra from $109.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday.

Vistra Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE VST opened at $85.77 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $29.80 billion, a PE ratio of 52.62 and a beta of 1.05. Vistra has a 52 week low of $29.84 and a 52 week high of $107.24. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $82.15 and a 200 day moving average price of $75.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.89, a quick ratio of 0.88 and a current ratio of 0.98.

Vistra (NYSE:VST) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.90 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.59 by ($0.69). Vistra had a net margin of 4.61% and a return on equity of 21.05%. The firm had revenue of $3.85 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $4.04 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.03 earnings per share. Analysts predict that Vistra will post 4.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Vistra Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Friday, September 20th will be given a dividend of $0.2195 per share. This is a boost from Vistra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 20th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.02%. Vistra’s dividend payout ratio is currently 53.37%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Vistra news, Director Lisa Crutchfield purchased 335 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 10th. The shares were bought at an average price of $89.46 per share, for a total transaction of $29,969.10. Following the purchase, the director now owns 32,186 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,879,359.56. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 1.42% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Vistra

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in VST. Lone Pine Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Vistra by 6.6% during the 2nd quarter. Lone Pine Capital LLC now owns 6,838,007 shares of the company’s stock valued at $587,932,000 after acquiring an additional 425,126 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in shares of Vistra by 5.1% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 6,146,598 shares of the company’s stock valued at $236,779,000 after purchasing an additional 300,355 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Vistra by 6.2% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 4,797,515 shares of the company’s stock valued at $184,800,000 after purchasing an additional 282,056 shares in the last quarter. Third Point LLC grew its holdings in shares of Vistra by 27.6% during the fourth quarter. Third Point LLC now owns 4,600,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $177,192,000 after purchasing an additional 995,748 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC raised its holdings in Vistra by 2.4% in the 4th quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 4,244,963 shares of the company’s stock valued at $163,516,000 after buying an additional 99,055 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.