We recently published a list of Jim Cramer’s Latest Portfolio: Top 10 Stocks in July. Since Vistra Corp (NYSE:VST) ranks 7th on the list, it deserves a deeper look.
Jim Cramer in a fresh episode of “Mad Money” on CNBC said that while investing isn’t easy, it’s made even more difficult by “authentic Wall Street gibberish” and “arcane technology.” Cramer said that there’s an “entire industry” in Wall Street wanting people to think that investing is hard and “ordinary people” cannot do it on their own. Cramer said that many people in the financial industry are just “after your fees” and they aren’t interested in making money from original investing. Cramer said that hedge fund managers and mutual funds make investing look inaccessible and impenetrable.
Cramer said that he’s “pulling back the curtain” and emphasized that investing isn’t “rocket science” or “brain surgery” and you don’t need to go to a business school to understand it. Cramer pitched himself as a “coach” or a “translator” who can explain the meaning of complex financial terms to ordinary people.
“You can comprehend all the mystical-sounding vocabulary we throw around here as long as you have a translator, a coach like me, who can explain what the darn words mean.”
For this article we watched several latest programs of Jim Cramer aired on CNBC and picked 10 stocks he’s talking about. With each company we have mentioned the number of hedge fund investors. 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)
Number of Hedge Fund Investors: 79
Jim Cramer in a recent program yet again talked about Vistra Corp (NYSE:VST), saying the company is benefiting from the rising demand of electricity “thanks to the all power-hungry data centers.”
“Vistra is somewhat special, because they recently acquired three nuclear plants on top of the one they already had. And right now nuclear is beloved because it’s the only way to get reliable clean energy at scale.”
Vistra Corp (NYSE:VST) is a power generation company that is also involved in electricity generation and wholesale energy purchases and sales. Vistra Corp (NYSE:VST) has about 5 million customers and operates a 41,000-megawatt portfolio of natural gas, coal, nuclear, and solar assets, as well as battery storage facilities.
Citi recently published a list of utilities stocks that it’s bullish on amid the importance of power grids, growth in renewable energy and AI-powered demand. Vistra Corp (NYSE:VST) is one of the stocks Citi likes.
Guggenheim analyst Shahriar Pourreza who holds a Buy recommendation and a Street-high price target of $133 on Vistra Corp (NYSE:VST) thinks VST is a “unicorn” for its portfolio of both gas and nuclear power plants. Pourreza further said in his note to clients that data centers are exploring 24-hour power sources that are clean and “nuclear plants are a very strong avenue for that”, further adding to his thesis for the stock.
Meridian Hedged Equity Fund stated the following regarding Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) in its first quarter 2024 investor letter:
“Vistra Corp. (NYSE:VST) is an integrated retail electricity and power generation company based in Irving, Texas. It operates in 12 states and six of the seven competitive markets in the U.S. Vistra’s retail brands serve approximately 2.9 million customers and its power generation fleet totals approximately 41,000 megawatts of natural gas, nuclear, coal, and solar facilities. Vistra was a top performer in the strategy over the past quarter, with its shares rallying over 80%. A key driver has been the thesis that the projected growth of power-hungry data centers, spurred by the rise of generative AI, will increase electricity demand and power prices. This is expected to significantly benefit incumbent power generators like Vistra. The company’s efficient generation portfolio, especially its nuclear and natural gas plants, is well-positioned to capitalize on rising demand, scarcity pricing, and ancillary services in the Texas power market. Vistra is also pursuing opportunities to potentially sign high-margin power offtake agreements directly with data center customers for its nuclear plants, similar to a recent deal by peer Talen Energy and Amazon. We continue to like Vistra’s strong free cash flow generation supporting continued share buybacks and debt reduction, synergies from the recent Energy Harbor acquisition, and a favorable power market backdrop with rising spark spreads. We trimmed the stock following its strong performance during the period.”
Overall, Vistra Corp (NYSE:VST) ranks 7th on Insider Monkey’s list titled Jim Cramer’s Latest Portfolio: Top 10 Stocks in July. While we acknowledge the potential of Vistra Corp (NYSE:VST), our conviction lies in the belief that 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 Vistra Corp (NYSE:VST) but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.