Vistra swings to quarterly profit on rising power demand

Vistra

07/05/2026 13:06

May 7 (Reuters) - Vistra Corp VST.N swung to a quarterly profit on Thursday, driven by rising power demand and prices, sending its shares up 4.2% in premarket trading.

Power companies across the U.S. are raising prices and ramping up capital spending to expand infrastructure as they race to meet surging demand from tech giants building out artificial intelligence data centers.

Such price increases are set through rate-case processes, which determine how much regulated utilities can charge customers for electricity, natural gas and services such as private water and steam.

Beyond AI, U.S. power consumption is expected to climb sharply through this year and next, lifted by cryptocurrency growth and the shift to electric heating and transportation.

The company in early January agreed to buy Cogentrix Energy from Quantum Capital Group for about $4.7 billion, following its 2025 Lotus acquisition to meet growing power demand.

The power producer expects annual load growth of 5% to 6% in the ERCOT grid in Texas and 2% to 3% in the PJM region.

The company's interest expenses fell over 17% to $263 million in the first-quarter.

Its Texas unit posted an adjusted core profit of $586 million, up more than 19% from a year earlier, while its East segment — which includes the PJM and New England regions — rose 55.8%.

The Irving, Texas-based company posted a net income of $980 million for the three months ended March 31, compared with a loss of $317 million a year ago.

Vistra reaffirmed its outlook for 2026 adjusted core profit from continuing operations to be in the range of $6.8 billion to $7.6 billion.

 (Reporting by Pranav  Mathur in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore)

 ((Pranav.Mathur@thomsonreuters.com;))