At a glance
Vistra Energy Corp is worth $45.18B, about 62 times its fiscal 2025 earnings. Revenue grew 3.0% to $17.74B in fiscal 2025, with 5.3% kept as profit; over 5 years it has grown 9.2% a year. It pays a 0.68% dividend yield, raised every year for at least 6 years, and returned $7.47B to shareholders in dividends and buybacks over FY2021–FY2025. The stock returned −28.1% over the past year with dividends reinvested and +49.1% a year over five years, against +11.5% and +11.7% for the S&P 500. At its worst it fell 45.7% in the 2020 crash (S&P 500: 33.7%) and 22.2% in the 2022 bear market (S&P 500: 24.5%), and was back at its earlier high 11 months and 9 months after the lows.
The business in plain English
Vistra Corp. sells electricity and natural gas to about 5 million homes and businesses, and it owns one of the largest fleets of competitive power plants in the U.S. It does business in 18 states and the District of Columbia. Its retail brands include TXU Energy, Ambit Energy, Dynegy Energy Services, Homefield Energy, Energy Harbor and U.S. Gas & Electric. Texas is its largest retail market, with about 2.6 million customers.
Vistra says owning both plants and customers lets it get power for those customers at the lowest cost. The company says this gives it an edge over retailers that own no plants. Its plants also sell power into wholesale markets run by regional grid operators. At December 31, 2025, the fleet had 43,641 megawatts of capacity, a measure of how much power it can produce at once. Natural gas made up 62%, coal 20%, nuclear 15%, and solar and batteries 3%.
Retail sales bring in most of the revenue. Of $17.7 billion in revenue for fiscal 2025, retail power sales in Texas's main grid, ERCOT, supplied 50.5%. Retail sales in the Northeast and Midwest supplied 22.9%. Wholesale sales to grid operators added 18%. Vistra reports five segments. Retail is one. Texas, East and West hold its plants. Asset Closure cleans up retired plants and mines. The East holds 51% of generating capacity and Texas 46%.
Price history
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VST -28.1% over the year to Nov 2, 2026, total return with dividends reinvested.
How it makes money
By product or service
| Retail energy charge in ERCOT | $8.97B | 50.5% |
| Retail energy charge in Northeast/Midwest | $4.06B | 22.9% |
| Wholesale generation revenue from ISO/RTO | $3.19B | 18% |
| Hedging revenues — realized | $583.0M | 3.3% |
| Transferable PTC revenues | $229.0M | 1.3% |
| Capacity revenue from ISO/RTO | $227.0M | 1.3% |
| Transferable Nuclear Production Tax Credit Revenues | $220.0M | 1.2% |
| Business interruption insurance proceeds | $118.0M | 0.7% |
Latest results
- In Q2 FY2026 (ended Jun 30, 2026), revenue was $4.40B, up 3.6% from a year earlier, and net income was $305.0M (-6.7%).
- For fiscal 2025, revenue was $17.74B (+3.0% year over year; +9.2% a year from FY2020 to FY2025) with a 5.3% net margin.
Financial health check
| Revenue growth a year (FY2020–FY2025) | +9.2% good |
|---|---|
| Operating margin | 10.7% watch |
| Free cash flow margin | 7.4% watch |
| Return on equity (FY2025) | 18.5% good |
| Return on assets (FY2025) | 2.3% weak |
| Net cash (cash minus debt) | $-19.16B weak |
| Fiscal year | Revenue | Net income | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2020 | $11.44B | $636.0M | $2.08B |
| FY2021 | $12.08B | $-1.27B | $-1.24B |
| FY2022 | $13.73B | $-1.23B | $-816.0M |
| FY2023 | $14.78B | $1.49B | $3.78B |
| FY2024 | $17.22B | $2.66B | $2.48B |
| FY2025 | $17.74B | $944.0M | $1.32B |
Valuation snapshot
| Market value | $45.18B |
|---|---|
| P/E ratio | 61.7 |
| Dividend yield | 0.68% |
Rank among 1514 US companies
Market value at each year end
Vistra Energy’s market value went from $7.84B at the end of 2017 to $45.18B on Nov 2, 2026, about 5.8 times as much; since the end of 2025 it is down 17%.
Show as a table
| Year end | Market value | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Nov 2, 2026 | $45.18B | -17.3% |
| 2025 | $54.66B | +16.5% |
| 2024 | $46.91B | +240.6% |
| 2023 | $13.77B | +49.2% |
| 2022 | $9.23B | -16.0% |
| 2021 | $10.99B | +14.3% |
| 2020 | $9.62B | -14.2% |
| 2019 | $11.21B | -3.0% |
| 2018 | $11.55B | +47.2% |
| 2017 | $7.84B |
Price behavior
| YTD | 1 yr | 3 yr | 5 yr | 10 yr | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| VST price data to Nov 2, 2026 | -16.2% | -28.1% | +58.5% | +49.1% | +29.8% |
Show as a table
| Year | Price data |
|---|---|
| 2026 (to date) | -16.2% |
| 2025 | +17.7% |
| 2024 | +261.4% |
| 2023 | +70.7% |
| 2022 | +5.1% |
| 2021 | +19.6% |
| 2020 | -11.7% |
| 2019 | +2.6% |
| 2018 | +24.9% |
| 2017 | +18.2% |
| 2008 financial crisis stocks fell Oct 9, 2007 – Mar 9, 2009 | Before this security existed |
|---|---|
| 2020 COVID crash stocks fell Feb 19, 2020 – Mar 23, 2020 | Lost 42.5% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 45.7%, back to its old high 11.1 months after the low |
| 2022 bear market stocks fell Jan 3, 2022 – Oct 12, 2022 | Lost 3.5% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 22.2%, back to its old high 9.1 months after the low |
Insider activity
Form 4 filings from 2025-10-27 to 2026-10-27 (25 read): 3 open-market purchases ($1.2M) and 15 sales ($27.5M), 13 of them under pre-arranged 10b5-1 trading plans.
| Date | Insider | Type | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 8, 2026 | Scott A Hudson EVP & President Vistra Retail | sell (plan) | $4.4M |
| Jun 16, 2026 | Scott B Helm Director | sell (plan) | $4.0M |
| Oct 6, 2026 | Scott A Hudson EVP & President Vistra Retail | sell (plan) | $3.6M |
| Oct 7, 2026 | Kristopher E. Moldovan EVP and CFO | sell (plan) | $3.3M |
| Sep 8, 2026 | Kristopher E. Moldovan EVP and CFO | sell (plan) | $3.0M |
Who owns it
Large shareholders (13G filings)
| Vanguard Capital Management | 7.25% | Mar 31, 2026 |
| Qatar Investment Authority | 5.5% | Jun 30, 2025 |
| FMR LLC | 5.1% | Mar 31, 2025 |
| Vanguard Portfolio Management | 5.01% | Mar 31, 2026 |
| STATE STREET CORPORATION | 5% | Jun 30, 2026 |
ETFs with the most weight in VST
| UTES Virtus Reaves Utilities ETF | 9.44% |
| PWRD TCW Transform Systems ETF | 6.85% |
| SPRX Spear Alpha ETF | 4.9% |
| EGGQ NestYield Visionary ETF | 4.57% |
| ZAP Global X U.S. Electrification ETF | 3.49% |
| XLU Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund | 3.44% |
| VPU Vanguard Utilities ETF | 3.42% |
| FXU First Trust Utilities AlphaDEX Fund | 3.37% |
What could go wrong
- Heavy reliance on Texas and its weather. Retail sales in Texas's ERCOT grid were 50.5% of fiscal 2025 revenue. Extreme heat or cold can strain its plants and raise retail power costs. Weather has hurt results before.
- Pending Cogentrix acquisition may fall short. Vistra's pending Cogentrix deal may not close on the expected terms or timeline, or at all. If it closes, the hoped-for savings and other benefits may arrive late or never.
- Nuclear plants carry special risks. Vistra runs six nuclear units. An accident, an outage, stricter safety rules or a break in fuel supply, including supply from Russia, could cause large losses, costs and legal liabilities.
- Power demand may grow more slowly. Vistra's growth plans count on rising electricity use. If demand falls short, or it cannot win or deliver long-term power deals with very large users, profits, growth and the stock price could suffer.
- A large debt load. Total debt was about $19.6 billion, against $435 million of cash and investments, as of June 30, 2026. Debt adds interest-rate risk, limits flexibility and can leave less cash for shareholders.
- Power and fuel prices swing. Results depend on wholesale power and fuel prices beyond Vistra's control. Hedges (contracts that lock in prices) cannot cover everything. The way Vistra accounts for them can make profits swing sharply between quarters.
Recent events
- Major agreement signed; New debt or financial obligation
- Major agreement signed; Other company announcement
- Quarterly results released
- Major agreement signed; New debt or financial obligation
- Other company announcement
- Major agreement signed; New debt or financial obligation
- Quarterly results released
- Shareholder vote results
- Major agreement signed; New debt or financial obligation
- Quarterly results released
For income and retirement investors
Vistra pays a small but growing dividend. Regular dividends per share rose from about $0.54 in fiscal 2020 to about $0.90 in fiscal 2025, roughly 10.7% a year. SEC filings show at least 6 straight annual increases. The fiscal 2025 dividend used 32.4% of earnings and 23.2% of free cash flow (cash left after running and investing in the business). The yield was 0.64% as of October 28, 2026, so the stock provides little income. Share buybacks were much larger: $5.96 billion over fiscal 2021–2025, against $1.52 billion in dividends. They helped cut the share count by 30.5% between November 2021 and August 2026. Vistra warns that it may not keep paying dividends.
The shares have fallen hard in sell-offs. In the 2020 COVID crash they dropped 45.7% and took about 11 months to recover. In the 2022 bear market they fell 22.2% and recovered in about 9 months. A single stock carries more risk than a diversified fund.
Questions investors ask
How does Vistra make money?
Mostly by selling electricity to homes and businesses. For fiscal 2025, retail power sales in Texas's ERCOT grid made up 50.5% of Vistra's $17.7 billion in revenue. Retail sales in the Northeast and Midwest made up 22.9%. Selling output from its plants into wholesale markets run by grid operators added 18%. Smaller amounts came from hedges, capacity payments (fees for keeping plants available) and production tax credits. Vistra says owning both plants and customers lets it get power at the lowest cost.
Does Vistra raise its dividend every year?
Yes, so far. SEC filings show at least 6 straight annual increases in Vistra's regular dividend through fiscal 2025, and the streak may be longer. The dividend reached about $0.90 per share in fiscal 2025, up from about $0.54 in fiscal 2020. It used 32.4% of fiscal 2025 earnings. The yield was small: 0.64% as of October 28, 2026. Vistra's annual report warns that it may not pay dividends in the future.
Is Vistra a utility stock?
Not in the traditional sense. Regulated utilities usually own local power lines and earn returns approved by state regulators. Vistra instead competes in open markets as one of the largest competitive power generators and retail electricity sellers in the U.S. Its plants sell into wholesale markets where prices move with supply and demand, so its results swing more with power and fuel prices. Utility funds still hold it, including the Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLU) and Vanguard Utilities ETF (VPU).
Does Vistra own nuclear power plants?
Yes. Vistra owns and operates six nuclear units at four plants. Together they have 6,448 megawatts of capacity, or 15% of its generating capacity at December 31, 2025. The two Comanche Peak units are in Texas's ERCOT grid. Beaver Valley's two units, Perry and Davis-Besse are in PJM, a grid region in Vistra's East segment. Their operating licenses expire between 2036 and 2053. Vistra says it has nuclear fuel under contract for all refueling needs through 2030.
How has Vistra stock performed?
Strongly over three and five years, but poorly over one year. As of October 28, 2026, the shares gained an average of 66% a year over three years and 50.9% a year over five years. Over one year they lost 24.7%, and for 2026 through that date they were down 11.1%. The price rose about 261% in 2024. One-year volatility, a measure of how widely the price moves, was 50.4%. The steepest drop over three years was 48.8%.