Vistra Raises Midpoint Of 2026 EBITDA Outlook, Adds $1.5 Billion To Buyback
The power producer set 2027 targets, closed its Cogentrix purchase and reported third-quarter net income of $1,140 million.
Vistra, the Irving, Texas integrated retail electricity and power generation company, raised the midpoint of its 2026 Ongoing Operations Adjusted EBITDA guidance to a range of $7.1 billion to $7.5 billion and authorized another $1.5 billion of share repurchases, it said Friday. Third-quarter net income reached $1,140 million, against $652 million a year earlier.
Prices drive a 50% EBITDA gain
Ongoing Operations Adjusted EBITDA, which excludes the Asset Closure segment, rose more than 50% to $2,378 million from $1,581 million in the third quarter of 2025. The company credited higher realized energy and capacity prices, three months of output from the plants bought from Lotus, and the return of Martin Lake Unit 1 to service.
Net income included a $559 million unrealized gain on hedges expected to settle in future years. Unrealized mark-to-market gains on derivatives rose $375 million from a year earlier, and a partial impairment of the Moss Landing 350 facility partly offset the gain. Operating revenue was $6,347 million, up from $4,971 million.
By segment, Texas climbed to $1,227 million from $784 million and East to $979 million from $719 million. Retail reached $98 million from $37 million, and West rose to $76 million from $63 million.
CEO Jim Burke said the fleet ran through "one of the hottest calendar third quarters on record," with all-time peak demand records set in July in both ERCOT and PJM and commercial availability of nearly 95%.
Guidance for 2026 and 2027
The 2026 range for Ongoing Operations Adjusted free cash flow before growth is $4.3 billion to $4.7 billion. Vistra initiated 2027 ranges of $7.7 billion to $8.5 billion for adjusted EBITDA and $4.3 billion to $5.1 billion for free cash flow before growth.
As of Oct. 30, Vistra had hedged about 100% of expected 2026 generation, about 98% for 2027 and about 78% for 2028.
Cogentrix closes, buyback grows
Vistra, which sells power under brands such as TXU Energy and Ambit Energy and runs a fleet fueled mainly by natural gas, closed its Cogentrix Energy purchase in October. The deal added about 5,500 MW of gas-fired capacity. In October and November Vistra paid about $2.2 billion in cash for it, repaid about $1.7 billion of assumed debt and redeemed all $1 billion of its Series A Preferred Stock, cutting available liquidity to about $5.4 billion pro forma from about $8,923 million at Sept. 30.
The new buyback authorization leaves about $2.5 billion available, which Vistra expects to use by the end of 2028. As of Nov. 2 it had repurchased about $6.7 billion of stock since November 2021, leaving about 339 million shares outstanding, roughly 30% fewer than on Nov. 2, 2021.
The company also started operating its 405 MW Pulaski Solar Facility in Illinois, under a power purchase agreement with Microsoft, and its 100 MW Deer Creek Solar & Energy Storage Facility in California. It announced a 20-year, 207 MW power purchase agreement with New Era Energy and Digital at its Odessa gas plant in Texas.
Vistra held a webcast at 10 a.m. ET on Friday to discuss the results.
Sources
- 8-K Filing — Vistra Corp. (VST) — SEC EDGAR
- Exhibit vistra-20260930xearningsre.htm — Vistra Corp. 8-K exhibit — SEC EDGAR
- Vistra Reports Third Quarter 2026 Results — prnewswire.com
