MA vs VST: Which Is the Better Buy?
Side-by-side comparison of Mastercard Incorporated and Vistra Corp. — fair value, conviction, valuation metrics, and QuantHub research signals.
Updated 2026-08-06.
Mastercard Incorporated · Financial Services
$543.60
+45.0% upside to fair value
High Conviction
Grade A
High Quality
VS
Vistra Corp. · Utilities
$140.58
+20.9% upside to fair value
Med Conviction
Grade B
QuantHub Verdict
MA has more upside to fair value
(+45.0%).
These are model outputs — not personalized investment advice.
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Valuation & Fundamentals
| Metric |
MA |
VST |
| Current Price |
$543.60 |
$140.58 |
| Fair Value Estimate |
$788.22 |
$170.00 |
| Upside to Fair Value |
+45.0%
|
+20.9%
|
| Market Cap |
$480.3B |
$47.4B |
| Forward P/E |
—
|
15.4x
|
| EV / EBITDA |
23.3x
|
9.3x
|
| Price / Sales |
14.2x
|
2.9x
|
| Price / FCF |
27.1x
|
42.5x
|
| Revenue Growth YoY |
+15.8%
|
+20.0%
|
| Gross Margin |
83.0%
|
12.7%
|
| Operating Margin |
59.4%
|
2.1%
|
| Return on Equity |
206.1%
|
35.0%
|
| Dividend Yield |
0.62% |
0.65% |
| FCF Yield |
3.69%
|
2.4%
|
| Analyst Consensus |
Strong Buy
|
Strong Buy
|
Investment Thesis
Mastercard operates a global two-sided payments network that connects issuers, acquirers, merchants and cardholders, monetizing payment volumes and an expanding set of security, data, authentication and other value-added services. Business quality is high: the network benefits from powerful acceptance and scale effects, 83.0% gross margin, 59.4% operating margin, 45.9% net margin, 206.1% ROE, and…
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 |
MA |
VST |
| Zone Low |
$591.16 |
$128.00 |
| Zone High |
$669.99 |
$145.00 |
| In Buy Zone? |
Yes
|
Yes
|