S&P 500 nuclear play Vistra announced late Thursday it has agreed to acquire seven natural gas generation facilities from Lotus Infrastructure Partners for nearly $2 billion. Vistra stock rose Friday.
The deal gives Vistra natural gas facilities located across PJM (multistate regional transmission organization), New England, New York and California and comes just days after the S&P 500 component kept 2025 guidance steady.
Vistra expects to fund the acquisition, valued at $1.9 billion, with the assumption of an existing term loan from Lotus and cash on hand. The S&P 500 nuclear play expects the acquisition to close in late 2025 or early 2026.
"We believe natural gas fired generation will continue to play an ever-increasing role in the reliability, affordability, and flexibility of U.S. power grids for years to come. The addition of this attractive portfolio of combined cycle and peaking assets allows Vistra to serve growing power demand while exceeding our mid-teens levered return target," Vistra Chief Executive Jim Burke said in the press release Thursday.
Morgan Stanley analyst David Arcaro wrote early Friday that the deal "looks like a small, opportunistic tuck-in acquisition that doesn't meaningfully shift the strategy or portfolio characteristics."
Vistra stock jumped 3% to 156.63 during Friday's stock market. Shares fell 1.7% to 152.06 on Thursday but ended the week up more than 15%. VST stock is building the right side of a deep base.
The stock entered Friday down 24% from its all-time high of 199.84, which it hit on Jan. 23. However, the S&P 500 stock was up 11% in 2025.
S&P 500: Vistra Deal Follows Earnings
Last week, Vistra reported a surprise first-quarter loss of $268 million with revenue increasing 29% to $3.93 billion. Similar to Constellation, it also kept its 2025 guidance steady, reaffirming its expectation of adjusted profit coming in between $5.5 billion and $6.1 billion.
Meanwhile, fellow S&P 500 nuclear stock Constellation Energy underperformed first-quarter profit expectations but kept its 2025 guidance steady, bucking the stock market trend which has seen many companies suspend or reduce annual outlooks amid economic uncertainty.
S&P 500 Nuke Stock Soars As It Holds Outlook Steady, An AI-Trend Vote Of Confidence
Both Vistra and Constellation Energy ran toward the top of the index in 2024 as investors flocked to artificial intelligence-adjacent plays.
However, 2025 has been a different story, as uncertainty cut through the market's optimism on AI. But AI enthusiasm has revived over the past several weeks, lifting energy plays again.
A recent International Energy Agency (IEA) report estimates that electricity demand from data centers worldwide will more than double by 2030 to about 945 terawatt-hours, or just slightly more than the current electricity used by Japan.
The report also suggests power demand from AI-related data centers will quadruple by the beginning of the next decade. In the U.S., AI use is set to consume more electricity by 2030 than what is currently necessary to produce aluminum, steel, cement and assorted chemicals, according to the IEA.
Natural gas is seen as an attractive option to meet the electricity demand boom, according to analysts. But to ensure they have the energy supplies to run their data centers, many tech companies are also investing in or partnering with nuclear power providers.
Nuclear Stocks Pick Up Steam
CEG is up around 27% this year, but is down about 19% from its all-time high of 352 on Jan. 23. The S&P 500 stock bottomed at 161.35 on April 7, but has now moved around 80% higher since then, regaining its 200-day and 50-day moving averages.
Oklo stock soared Wednesday after the nuclear-power startup reported a better-than-expected first-quarter loss and reiterated full-year guidance. The stock is now up around 58% in May. For the 2025 stock market, Oklo stock is up more than 76% after entering this month's market action trading basically flat on the year. However, OKLO has declined 37% since it hit an all-time high of 59.14 on Feb. 7. The stock jumped 101% in 2024. But the gain masked some wild gyrations.
Oklo is working to bring small modular reactors, or SMR, to market. No operating SMRs currently exist, but a number of companies are developing the technology.
Among other SMR-focused companies Nano Nuclear Energy galloped 380% higher in 2024 since going public on the Nasdaq on May 8. And NuScale Power surged 445% in 2024, propelled higher by more than 50% gains in October and November.
SMR stock is up about 34% in 2025 and NNE has gained 5% so far this year in stock market trade.
S&P 500 component Vistra has an 82 Composite Rating out of a best-possible 99. VST also has a 93 Relative Strength Rating and a 22 EPS Rating.
Please follow Kit Norton on X @KitNorton for more coverage.
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