Steph & Co. Has $225,000 Stock Holdings in Vistra Corp. $VST

Steph & Co. lowered its stake in shares of Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) by 15.1% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,159 shares of the company’s stock after selling 206 shares during the period. Steph & Co.’s holdings in Vistra were worth $225,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of VST. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Vistra by 0.3% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,190,462 shares of the company’s stock valued at $492,102,000 after purchasing an additional 11,386 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of Vistra by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,083,842 shares of the company’s stock worth $362,166,000 after purchasing an additional 57,358 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Vistra during the 1st quarter valued at about $209,149,000. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its stake in shares of Vistra by 8.7% in the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 1,470,680 shares of the company’s stock valued at $172,717,000 after buying an additional 118,230 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in Vistra by 1.5% in the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,327,653 shares of the company’s stock worth $155,920,000 after buying an additional 19,679 shares during the last quarter. 90.88% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VST has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Scotiabank initiated coverage on shares of Vistra in a research note on Monday. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $256.00 target price for the company. Raymond James Financial started coverage on shares of Vistra in a research note on Friday, June 13th. They issued a “strong-buy” rating and a $216.00 price objective for the company. Melius Research raised shares of Vistra to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 20th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price target on Vistra from $179.00 to $203.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Vistra from $207.00 to $223.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have assigned a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Vistra has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $218.20.

Vistra Stock Up 0.0%

VST stock opened at $202.12 on Friday. 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 company has a 50-day moving average of $199.60 and a two-hundred day moving average of $166.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $68.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.33. Vistra Corp. has a 52-week low of $90.51 and a 52-week high of $219.82.

Vistra (NYSE:VST) last announced its 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). The business had revenue of $4.25 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.15 billion. Vistra had a net margin of 12.90% and a return on equity of 108.41%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Vistra Corp. will post 7 EPS for the current year.

Vistra Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Friday, September 19th will be given a dividend of $0.226 per share. This represents a $0.90 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.4%. This is an increase from Vistra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.23. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 19th. Vistra’s payout ratio is presently 14.35%.

Insider Transactions at Vistra

In related news, CEO James A. Burke sold 43,074 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $208.75, for a total transaction of $8,991,697.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 217,025 shares in the company, valued at $45,303,968.75. This represents a 16.56% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders have sold a total of 233,569 shares of company stock worth $48,915,316 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 1.42% 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.