Vistra Corp. $VST Shares Bought by National Pension Service

National Pension Service lifted its holdings in shares of Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) by 81.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,125,100 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 505,495 shares during the quarter. National Pension Service owned about 0.33% of Vistra worth $218,056,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VST. City State Bank lifted its stake in shares of Vistra by 210.0% during the second quarter. City State Bank now owns 155 shares of the company’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 105 shares in the last quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Vistra by 65.9% during the 2nd quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 214 shares of the company’s stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 85 shares during the period. Banque Transatlantique SA lifted its position in Vistra by 132.0% during the 1st quarter. Banque Transatlantique SA now owns 232 shares of the company’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 132 shares in the last quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Vistra by 48.4% in the 2nd quarter. Armstrong Advisory Group Inc. now owns 239 shares of the company’s stock worth $46,000 after acquiring an additional 78 shares during the period. Finally, LRI Investments LLC grew its position in Vistra by 104.3% in the second quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 286 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,000 after acquiring an additional 146 shares in the last quarter. 90.88% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VST has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on shares of Vistra from $227.00 to $248.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 24th. Daiwa Capital Markets raised shares of Vistra from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $250.00 price target on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 17th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $230.00 price objective (down from $241.00) on shares of Vistra in a research report on Monday, September 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on Vistra in a research note on Monday, October 27th. They set an “overweight” rating and a $238.00 target price for the company. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered Vistra from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, September 5th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $234.21.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Vistra news, CEO James A. Burke sold 9,641 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $192.30, for a total value of $1,853,964.30. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 298,967 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $57,491,354.10. This trade represents a 3.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Insiders have sold a total of 723,910 shares of company stock worth $148,086,569 in the last quarter. 1.42% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Vistra Trading Down 0.5%

NYSE VST opened at $178.19 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $198.68 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $186.01. The company has a market capitalization of $60.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 64.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.30. Vistra Corp. has a 12 month low of $90.51 and a 12 month high of $219.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.74, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

Vistra (NYSE:VST) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported $1.75 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $4.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $6.60 billion. Vistra had a return on equity of 64.04% and a net margin of 6.70%. As a group, research analysts predict that Vistra Corp. will post 7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Vistra Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 22nd will be issued a $0.227 dividend. This is a boost from Vistra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 22nd. This represents a $0.91 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. Vistra’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.49%.

Vistra Company Profile

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.