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Investing.com - Vistra (NYSE:VST) reported fourth-quarter core earnings at its retail unit that topped expectations.
Shares in the Texas-based energy utility moved lower in early U.S. trading on Thursday, reversing premarket gains in the stock.
"[W]e view the company’s [fourth-quarter] print, in and of itself, as relatively neutral," analysts at Evercore ISI said in a note to clients.
Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization at the segment came in at $600 million in the three months ended on December 31, up from $463 million a year earlier. Analysts had seen the figure at $230.8 million, according to Bloomberg consensus forecasts.
Overall, net income was $490 million, swinging from a loss of $184 million.
"Our company is well-positioned to serve customer needs and grow with the overall electrification trends in our industry," CEO Jim Burke said in a statement.
Earlier this year, Vistra was among the best performing names on the benchmark S&P 500, outshining even the likes of artificial intelligence-darling Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA). Over the past one-year period, the stock has surged by more than 190%.
Investors have bet that the nuclear-power generator stands to be a major beneficiary of the AI boom, providing the energy needed to underpin the data centers responsible for training cloud- and AI-based applications. Usually reliable and carbon-free energy from groups like Vistra could be in particularly high demand.
The Evercore ISI analysts noted commentary from Nvidia executives this week suggesting that the next generation of AI will require 100 times more computing power than older models.
Sentiment was further boosted when Vistra-rival Constellation Energy (NASDAQ:CEG) announced in January a decade-long deal to provide power to more than a dozen U.S. government agencies.
However, Vistra shares were dented last month by a fire at a key battery-storage plant in Northern California. Following the incident, the stock wiped away much of its year-to-date gains. It has now inched down by about 1% so far in 2025.