COST vs VST: Which Is the Better Buy?
Side-by-side comparison of Costco Wholesale Corporation and Vistra Corp. — fair value, conviction, valuation metrics, and QuantHub research signals.
Updated 2026-08-06.
Costco Wholesale Corporation · Consumer Defensive
$947.50
-1.4% upside to fair value
Grade C
High Quality
VS
Vistra Corp. · Utilities
$140.58
+20.9% upside to fair value
Med Conviction
Grade B
QuantHub Verdict
VST has more upside to fair value
(+20.9%).
VST trades at a lower forward P/E
(15.4x).
These are model outputs — not personalized investment advice.
See all research →
Valuation & Fundamentals
| Metric |
COST |
VST |
| Current Price |
$947.50 |
$140.58 |
| Fair Value Estimate |
$933.84 |
$170.00 |
| Upside to Fair Value |
-1.4%
|
+20.9%
|
| Market Cap |
$420.2B |
$47.4B |
| Forward P/E |
47.6x
|
15.4x
|
| EV / EBITDA |
28.3x
|
9.3x
|
| Price / Sales |
1.4x
|
2.9x
|
| Price / FCF |
47.7x
|
42.5x
|
| Revenue Growth YoY |
+11.6%
|
+20.0%
|
| Gross Margin |
12.9%
|
12.7%
|
| Operating Margin |
3.8%
|
2.1%
|
| Return on Equity |
28.3%
|
35.0%
|
| Dividend Yield |
0% |
0.65% |
| FCF Yield |
2.1%
|
2.4%
|
| Analyst Consensus |
Buy
|
Strong Buy
|
Investment Thesis
Costco Wholesale Corporation operates as a membership-only warehouse club offering a wide range of merchandise at low prices. The company exhibits high business quality with a durable competitive moat driven by cost advantages, strong brand loyalty, and efficient operations, reflected in a robust ROE of 28.3% and solid revenue growth of 11.6% in the most recent quarter. Despite these strengths, t…
Vistra is an integrated merchant power producer and retail electricity supplier with roughly 38,700 MW of generation across natural gas, nuclear, coal, solar and battery storage, plus a roughly 4.3 million customer retail book (TXU and affiliated brands) across 20 states. The 2024 Energy Harbor deal made it the second-largest nuclear operator in the US, and that nuclear and gas fleet is now centr…
Accumulation Zones
| Metric |
COST |
VST |
| Zone Low |
$700.38 |
$128.00 |
| Zone High |
$793.76 |
$145.00 |
| In Buy Zone? |
No
|
Yes
|