TacticScaleWhat Vistra Does & How It Makes Money (VST)
Updated October 2026 · reflects Vistra's latest reported financials
U.S. power generator and retail electricity provider. Vistra earns money by generating power and selling it on wholesale markets, and by selling electricity and natural gas to retail customers.
How Vistra makes money
Vistra earns money by generating power and selling it on wholesale markets, and by selling electricity and natural gas to retail customers. Commodity risk management and fuel procurement support both businesses.
What Vistra does
Vistra Corp. is an integrated retail electricity and power generation company based in Irving, Texas, with roots dating back to 1882. It runs a generation fleet of about 44,000 megawatts that includes natural gas, nuclear, coal, solar, and battery energy storage facilities. It also handles wholesale energy trading, commodity risk management, and fuel logistics. The company reports five segments: Retail, Texas, East, West, and Asset Closure. Its retail business sells electricity and natural gas to about 5 million residential, commercial, and industrial customers across U.S. states and the District of Columbia. The Asset Closure segment decommissions and reclaims retired plants and mines. The company was known as Vistra Energy Corp. until it changed its name in July 2020.
Products & services
- Retail electricity supply
- Retail natural gas supply
- Wholesale power generation
- Nuclear generation
- Battery energy storage
- Plant decommissioning and reclamation
What is Vistra worth?
On an owner-earnings DCF, Vistra's most-likely value is about $90 versus a recent price near $161 (45% above fair value). But TacticScale only calls a stock undervalued when the price sits below its conservative no-growth floor (~$41) with a margin of safety — so the honest verdict here is “Fairly priced — no edge.” Fair value earns its keep only at the extremes, not in the wide middle.
Price sits in the normal range — fair value isn't actionable here; it earns its keep only when price drops below the no-growth floor, or runs to roughly double the optimistic case.
⚠ High leverage — net debt is 15.1× annual cash flow. Net debt is subtracted from this fair value, but refinancing at higher rates, principal timing, and share dilution aren’t modeled — the equity can be worth far less if cash flow weakens.
Analysis, not advice. Fair value is a margin-of-safety estimate from a deterministic owner-earnings DCF, not a price target or recommendation. See the full breakdown →
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