Vistra Corp. — Earnings Quality Grade F
VST · Utilities
Major red flags
Screening Summary
Financial Trends
Revenue & Net Income ($B)
Margins (%)
18-Point Screening
Revenue Quality
DSO 48 days, change +6 days YoY
AR outpaced revenue for 2 consecutive years
Revenue 3.0%, CFFO -10.8%. Cash follows revenue
Expense Quality
Inventory 4.7% vs COGS 22.7%. Normal
CapEx growth 32.4% is >2x revenue growth 3.0%
SG&A/Gross Profit = 29.4%, excellent (<30%)
Gross margin swung -10.8pp (43.7% → 32.9%)
Cash Flow Quality
CFFO/NI = 4.31. Profits backed by cash
FCF $1.3B, FCF/NI = 1.40
Accruals ratio = -7.5%. Low accruals
Cash $0.8B covers only 4% of debt $20.1B
Balance Sheet Health
Goodwill+Intangibles $5.2B = 103% of equity. Over 50%
Debt/EBITDA = 4.0x. Healthy
Other assets grew 29.1% vs revenue 3.0%
No write-off data
Acquisition Risk
FCF after acquisitions positive
Goodwill+Intangibles change 4% YoY. Normal
Manipulation Score
M-Score = -2.54 (< -2.22). Unlikely manipulator
Beneish M-Score
Altman Z-Score
Generated from public financial data using forensic accounting frameworks. Not investment advice. Data: Yahoo Finance · 2026-04-10