Maryland State Retirement & Pension System Sells 928 Shares of Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST)

Maryland State Retirement & Pension System lessened its stake in shares of Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) by 3.2% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 27,723 shares of the company’s stock after selling 928 shares during the quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System’s holdings in Vistra were worth $1,866,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State of Alaska Department of Revenue boosted its holdings in shares of Vistra by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 36,465 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,539,000 after acquiring an additional 170 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Vistra by 17.4% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,108 shares of the company’s stock valued at $147,000 after acquiring an additional 312 shares during the last quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Vistra by 64.4% during the 4th quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 840 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 329 shares during the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. purchased a new stake in shares of Vistra during the 1st quarter valued at about $26,000. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its holdings in shares of Vistra by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 17,214 shares of the company’s stock valued at $662,000 after acquiring an additional 384 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.88% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Lisa Crutchfield acquired 335 shares of Vistra stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 10th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $89.46 per share, for a total transaction of $29,969.10. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly 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 can be accessed through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 1.42% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on VST shares. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Vistra from $86.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 28th. Guggenheim raised shares of Vistra to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 7th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Vistra from $72.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, April 4th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Vistra from $85.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 9th. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott began coverage on shares of Vistra in a report on Thursday, April 18th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $82.00 price objective on the stock. Six analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Vistra presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $87.83.

Vistra Price Performance

NYSE:VST traded down $1.08 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $90.64. 951,857 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 6,700,583. The company has a quick ratio of 0.96, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.06. Vistra Corp. has a 1 year low of $26.06 and a 1 year high of $107.24. The company has a market cap of $31.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 56.27 and a beta of 1.05. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $89.77 and a 200 day moving average price of $65.36.

Vistra (NYSE:VST) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 9th. The company reported $0.23 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.62 by ($0.39). The firm had revenue of $3.05 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.81 billion. Vistra had a net margin of 5.66% and a return on equity of 24.72%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Vistra Corp. will post 3.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Vistra Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 19th were given a dividend of $0.218 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, June 18th. This represents a $0.87 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.96%. This is a boost from Vistra’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.22. Vistra’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.