Herc (NYSE:HRI) Cut to Sell at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Herc (NYSE:HRI) from a hold rating to a sell rating in a report issued on Saturday.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on HRI. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of Herc from $170.00 to $140.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 30th. Baird R W raised Herc from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Herc from $127.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Zacks Research upgraded Herc from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, August 29th. Finally, Robert W. Baird set a $160.00 price objective on shares of Herc and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $149.20.

Herc Trading Up 1.5%

NYSE:HRI opened at $133.87 on Friday. Herc has a 1-year low of $96.18 and a 1-year high of $246.88. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $126.83 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $125.37. The company has a current ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 155.66, a PEG ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.81.

Herc (NYSE:HRI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 2nd. The transportation company reported $3.42 EPS for the quarter. The company had revenue of $745.00 million during the quarter. Herc had a return on equity of 20.77% and a net margin of 0.61%. On average, equities analysts expect that Herc will post 12.84 earnings per share for the current year.

Herc Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 5th. Investors of record on Friday, August 22nd were paid a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 22nd. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.1%. Herc’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 325.58%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Herc

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in HRI. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Herc in the second quarter valued at $242,697,000. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Herc by 104.7% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,986,479 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $400,995,000 after purchasing an additional 1,527,244 shares during the period. Coliseum Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Herc by 213.4% in the 1st quarter. Coliseum Capital Management LLC now owns 1,309,989 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $175,892,000 after purchasing an additional 891,979 shares during the period. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. raised its holdings in shares of Herc by 362.8% in the 2nd quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 700,402 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $92,236,000 after purchasing an additional 549,072 shares during the period. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its position in Herc by 135.6% during the first quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 589,817 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $79,195,000 after buying an additional 339,519 shares during the last quarter. 93.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Herc

Herc Holdings Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as an equipment rental supplier. It rents aerial, earthmoving, material handling, trucks and trailers, air compressors, compaction, and lighting equipment, as well as generators, and safety supplies and expendables; and provides ProSolutions, an industry specific solution based services, such as pumping solutions, power generation, climate control, remediation and restoration, and studio and production equipment.