Herc (NYSE:HRI) Upgraded at Zacks Research

Herc (NYSE:HRI) was upgraded by stock analysts at Zacks Research from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other research firms also recently commented on HRI. KeyCorp lowered their target price on shares of Herc from $190.00 to $165.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 16th. Robert W. Baird lowered their target price on shares of Herc from $200.00 to $198.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 18th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Herc from $160.00 to $176.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Herc from $165.00 to $125.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 10th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Herc from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $165.67.

Herc Trading Down 5.3%

NYSE HRI opened at $141.98 on Tuesday. Herc has a 1-year low of $88.45 and a 1-year high of $188.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.24. The company has a market capitalization of $4.74 billion, a PE ratio of -525.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 27.14 and a beta of 1.89. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $122.73 and its 200-day simple moving average is $137.15.

Herc (NYSE:HRI) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The transportation company reported $0.21 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.21) by $0.42. Herc had a negative net margin of 0.11% and a positive return on equity of 10.72%. The business had revenue of $1.14 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.06 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.30 earnings per share. Herc’s revenue for the quarter was up 32.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Herc will post 5.31 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Herc

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of HRI. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Herc during the fourth quarter valued at about $287,269,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. boosted its holdings in Herc by 86,823.0% during the fourth quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,335,138 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $198,108,000 after acquiring an additional 1,333,602 shares during the period. Freestone Grove Partners LP boosted its holdings in Herc by 667.9% during the fourth quarter. Freestone Grove Partners LP now owns 573,149 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $85,044,000 after acquiring an additional 498,511 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Herc by 11.2% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 4,123,437 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $481,040,000 after buying an additional 413,719 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Herc by 305.6% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 425,582 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $63,148,000 after buying an additional 320,649 shares during the period. 93.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Herc

Herc Holdings Inc (NYSE: HRI) operates as a leading equipment rental provider in North America, offering a wide range of machinery and support services to construction, industrial, government and event sectors. The company’s fleet includes aerial work platforms, earthmoving equipment, material handling solutions, power generation units and specialty tools, enabling clients to scale their operations without the capital expense of ownership. In addition to basic machinery rentals, Herc provides value-added services such as equipment maintenance, on-site safety training and project consulting to help customers optimize productivity and maintain compliance with industry standards.

Founded as part of Hertz Global Holdings, the equipment rental business was spun off as an independent public company in early 2016.