Following on August 6's "S&P 500 Nuclear Giants Earnings Due As Stock Market Nuke Fever Spreads".
From Barron's, August 7:
Power plant owners Constellation Energy and Vistra went in opposite directions after reporting earnings on Thursday morning.
Constellation stock was flat after initially falling, while Vistra rose 4.6%. Vistra’s increase may have to do with comments the CEO made on its earnings call, telling investors that he’s confident the company can sign big deals this year for the electricity from its power plants, including a nuclear plant in Texas known as Comanche Peak.
Constellation has already signed deals for power from the nuclear reactors it owns, including one with Microsoft for power from a shuttered reactor at Three Mile Island, but investors may be looking for even more announcements. Its shares are already up 37% this year—so the bar is high for them to rise even more.
Vistra’s net income of $327 million beat Wall Street expectations for $301 million. The company also reaffirmed its full-year guidance. Initially that didn’t seem to be enough for investors. Before the market opened, the stock was down sharply.
One likely reason the stock reversed is that Vistra’s executives are optimistic they’ll sign lucrative deals for electricity by the end of this year. Investors want them to sell power to tech companies for their AI data centers. CEO Jim Burke told an analyst that “there’s been a ton of interest in Comanche Peak” nuclear plant, and that the company is also fielding interest for other projects. If deal is indeed signed by the end of the year, it could point to much higher earnings growth for Vistra.
Constellation also beat earnings expectations for the second quarter, though its guidance may have disappointed investors....
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After trading down $2.05 (-0.61%) yesterday CEG is up $2.56 (+0.76%) in pre-market trade, $338.97 last.
VST was up $4.74 (+2.36%) on Thursday and is up $1.72 (+0.84%) at $207.31 ahead of the regular session.
