VST vs. SO, CEG, AEP, D, EIX, DTE, ETR, FE, PPL, and ES
Should you be buying Vistra stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Vistra include Southern (SO), Constellation Energy (CEG), American Electric Power (AEP), Dominion Energy (D), Edison International (EIX), DTE Energy (DTE), Entergy (ETR), FirstEnergy (FE), PPL (PPL), and Eversource Energy (ES). These companies are all part of the "electric services" industry.
Vistra (NYSE:VST) and Southern (NYSE:SO) are both large-cap utilities companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, media sentiment, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, risk, community ranking and valuation.
Southern has a net margin of 16.74% compared to Vistra's net margin of 5.66%. Vistra's return on equity of 24.72% beat Southern's return on equity.
Vistra pays an annual dividend of $0.86 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Southern pays an annual dividend of $2.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.6%. Vistra pays out 52.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Southern pays out 74.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.
90.9% of Vistra shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 64.1% of Southern shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.4% of Vistra shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 0.2% of Southern shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Vistra has a beta of 1.02, suggesting that its share price is 2% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Southern has a beta of 0.48, suggesting that its share price is 52% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Southern received 238 more outperform votes than Vistra when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 66.51% of users gave Vistra an outperform vote while only 49.95% of users gave Southern an outperform vote.
Southern has higher revenue and earnings than Vistra. Southern is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Vistra, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
In the previous week, Vistra had 4 more articles in the media than Southern. MarketBeat recorded 20 mentions for Vistra and 16 mentions for Southern. Southern's average media sentiment score of 1.02 beat Vistra's score of 0.62 indicating that Southern is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Vistra presently has a consensus price target of $87.83, suggesting a potential downside of 11.35%. Southern has a consensus price target of $76.60, suggesting a potential downside of 4.42%. Given Southern's higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Southern is more favorable than Vistra.
Summary
Southern beats Vistra on 11 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding VST and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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