Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) Earns ‘Buy’ Rating and Upgraded Price Target, Bolstered by AI Data Center Demand Amid Regulatory Challenges

We recently compiled a list of the 10 AI News You Shouldn’t Miss. In this article, we are going to take a look at where Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) stands against the other AI stocks you shouldn’t miss.

“Artificial Intelligence is the new frontier for Big Tech”, notes Rachna Dhanrajani when speaking to CNBC about tech spending on artificial intelligence. Tech giants have pledged to spend over $200 billion on AI-related capital expenditures this year, marking an all-time high. To add to the equation, the US presidential elections have drawn to a close and Donald Trump has emerged as the winner. Silicon Valley should brace for a starkly different relationship with the US government than it had with its predecessor.

READ ALSO: 10 AI News You Shouldn’t Miss and Top 10 Trending AI Stocks to Watch in November 

Wedbush Securities analyst Daniel Ives anticipates that the Trump Administration will focus on strengthening the US’ position in artificial intelligence.

“We would expect significant AI initiatives from the Beltway within the U.S. that would be a benefit for tech players…Under a Trump Administration, we would expect major AI initiatives within the U.S. government including the Department of Defense that would also be a major tailwind (for) AI players”.

-Ives said in a client note Wednesday.

The Latest Developments in AI

No matter how the future unfolds, artificial intelligence is already reshaping industries and businesses at an unprecedented pace. While robots are already part of the landscape, AI is poised to propel them into the mainstream. Physical Intelligence, a startup developing foundational software for robots, has raised $400 million in early-stage funds from big names such as Jeff Bezos and OpenAI. The company is seeking to make software that can work on any robot. The company has previously showcased how one of its software enables robots to do tasks such as folding laundry and bagging groceries.

Another Singapore-based startup is making waves in the culinary space. ProfilePrint uses patented digital fingerprint technology for analyzing the quality and identity of ingredients, thereby helping agribusinesses save time.

“ProfilePrint digitalizes food ingredients so that buyers and sellers no longer need to ship samples physically, allowing us to have a significant reduction in logistics costs, overheads as well as carbon footprint”.

– Alan Lai, CEO and founder of ProfilePrint, speaking to CNBC’s “CNBC Tech: The Edge.”

In other news, Sam Altman, founder of OpenAI, recently took to Reddit to answer all the pressing questions users have had surrounding ChatGPT and OpenAI. While ChatGPT-5 isn’t going to come around this year, another user asked a primarily important question: Is AGI achievable with known hardware? Answering in the affirmative, Altman responds that he believes it is possible with current hardware. AGI, or artificial general intelligence, is the type of AI that would possess the ability to perform any intellectual task that a human can. It is known to be a quantum leap beyond the AI systems that are known today.

For this article, we selected AI stocks by going through news articles, stock analysis, and press releases. These stocks are also popular among hedge funds.

Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 275% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 150 percentage points (see more details here).

Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) Earns 'Buy' Rating and Upgraded Price Target, Bolstered by AI Data Center Demand Amid Regulatory Challenges

A team of technicians working on a server of bitcoin mining equipment in a data center.

Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST)

Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 92

Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) is a Fortune 500 integrated retail electricity and power generation company. The stock is powered by the huge demand from AI data centers.

On November 6, Jefferies analyst Julien Dumoulin Smith maintained a “Buy” rating on Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) and raised the price target to $143.00 from $137.00. The buy rating comes despite the cautious regulatory environment stemming from a recent FERC decision. Talen Energy’s proposal to sell power directly to Amazon’s data center by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission was rejected, leading to negative market reactions and implying challenges in future data center contracts.

Regardless, the company’s diversified asset base and its strong position in Texas (ERCOT) are acting as modest buffers. There is also an upside with potential data center contracts that are expected to boost capacity utilization. The stock’s value has also been positively revised largely owing to data center deals. Together, all of these factors highlight Vistra’s growth potential and financial stability, hence resulting in the buy rating.

Overall VST ranks 2nd  on our list of the AI stocks you shouldn’t miss. While we acknowledge the potential of VST as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter timeframe. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than VST but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.

READ NEXT: 8 Best Wide Moat Stocks to Buy Now and 30 Most Important AI Stocks According to BlackRock.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.