Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Lowers Stock Position in Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST)

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP reduced its stake in shares of Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) by 11.4% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,972,937 shares of the company’s stock after selling 639,844 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP owned 1.43% of Vistra worth $427,618,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in VST. Castle Hook Partners LP lifted its position in shares of Vistra by 470.0% during the 1st quarter. Castle Hook Partners LP now owns 3,769,842 shares of the company’s stock valued at $262,569,000 after buying an additional 3,108,511 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its position in shares of Vistra by 9,668.5% during the 1st quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 2,940,113 shares of the company’s stock valued at $204,779,000 after buying an additional 2,910,015 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Vistra during the 4th quarter valued at about $77,523,000. Electron Capital Partners LLC lifted its holdings in Vistra by 468.2% in the 4th quarter. Electron Capital Partners LLC now owns 2,128,930 shares of the company’s stock worth $82,006,000 after purchasing an additional 1,754,223 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings in Vistra by 115.3% in the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 2,532,657 shares of the company’s stock worth $217,758,000 after purchasing an additional 1,356,488 shares in the last quarter. 90.88% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VST has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on Vistra in a report on Friday. They issued a “buy” rating and a $99.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Vistra from $109.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $89.43.

Vistra Stock Up 4.5 %

Shares of VST opened at $89.42 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $30.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 54.86 and a beta of 1.08. Vistra Corp. has a 1 year low of $31.16 and a 1 year high of $107.24. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $79.90 and its 200-day simple moving average is $79.54. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.89, a current ratio of 0.98 and a quick ratio of 0.88.

Vistra (NYSE:VST) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.90 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.59 by ($0.69). The firm had revenue of $3.85 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.04 billion. Vistra had a return on equity of 21.05% and a net margin of 4.61%. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.03 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that Vistra Corp. 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, September 20th will be issued a dividend of $0.2195 per share. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.98%. This is a boost from Vistra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 20th. Vistra’s dividend payout ratio is 53.37%.

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.