United Rentals (NYSE:URI) Downgraded to “Hold” Rating by Zacks Research

United Rentals (NYSE:URI) was downgraded by Zacks Research from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report issued on Monday, Zacks reports.

URI has been the topic of a number of other reports. Robert W. Baird set a $1,300.00 price objective on shares of United Rentals in a research note on Friday, July 24th. BNP Paribas Exane upgraded shares of United Rentals from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $1,320.00 target price for the company in a research report on Monday, June 29th. Citigroup reaffirmed a “buy” rating on shares of United Rentals in a report on Monday, September 14th. Argus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $1,250.00 price objective on shares of United Rentals in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on United Rentals from $715.00 to $950.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, July 24th. Fifteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, United Rentals presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $1,230.88.

United Rentals Stock Performance

Shares of URI stock opened at $1,045.20 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $1,067.16 and a 200 day moving average price of $974.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.38, a quick ratio of 0.70 and a current ratio of 0.76. The stock has a market cap of $65.05 billion, a PE ratio of 25.10, a P/E/G ratio of 1.51 and a beta of 1.79. United Rentals has a 1 year low of $701.59 and a 1 year high of $1,179.18.

United Rentals (NYSE:URI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 22nd. The construction company reported $12.76 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $11.53 by $1.23. The business had revenue of $4.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.22 billion. United Rentals had a return on equity of 31.72% and a net margin of 15.67%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $10.47 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that United Rentals will post 48.7 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at United Rentals

In other news, EVP William Grace sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $1,133.15, for a total value of $1,699,725.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 6,062 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,869,155.30. The trade was a 19.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of United Rentals

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in United Rentals in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $5,816,326,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of United Rentals during the 4th quarter worth $978,017,000. Bank of America Corp DE acquired a new stake in shares of United Rentals during the second quarter worth $944,196,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company acquired a new stake in shares of United Rentals during the second quarter worth $716,129,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new stake in shares of United Rentals in the second quarter valued at $412,860,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.26% of the company’s stock.

United Rentals Company Profile

United Rentals, Inc is an equipment rental company serving construction, industrial, commercial, government and residential customers. The company provides access to a broad range of equipment without requiring customers to purchase and maintain their own fleets.

Its rental offerings include aerial work platforms, earthmoving equipment, material-handling equipment, trucks and trailers, power-generation and climate-control equipment, pumps, tools, trench-safety products and traffic-control equipment.