Herc Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HRI) Short Interest Update

Herc Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HRI) saw a large growth in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 1,540,000 shares, a growth of 61.4% from the February 13th total of 954,400 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 436,300 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.5 days. Currently, 5.5% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Herc

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Herc by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 3,066,892 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $580,655,000 after buying an additional 27,578 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its position in shares of Herc by 435.8% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 1,419,015 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $268,662,000 after buying an additional 1,154,182 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of Herc by 69.0% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,245,168 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $235,748,000 after buying an additional 508,359 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Herc in the 4th quarter worth approximately $183,786,000. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in shares of Herc by 0.8% in the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 812,270 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $153,787,000 after buying an additional 6,777 shares during the last quarter. 93.11% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price target on Herc from $204.00 to $234.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $219.75.

Herc Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:HRI traded up $7.21 on Friday, hitting $129.46. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 527,103 shares, compared to its average volume of 308,255. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $178.66 and a 200 day simple moving average of $184.11. Herc has a 1 year low of $119.60 and a 1 year high of $246.88. The company has a market capitalization of $3.68 billion, a PE ratio of 17.47, a PEG ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 2.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.99, a current ratio of 1.38 and a quick ratio of 1.38.

Herc (NYSE:HRI) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The transportation company reported $3.58 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.98 by ($0.40). Herc had a net margin of 5.91% and a return on equity of 26.48%. The firm had revenue of $934.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $919.84 million. Sell-side analysts forecast that Herc will post 12.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Herc Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th were given a dividend of $0.70 per share. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.16%. This is a positive change from Herc’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. Herc’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.79%.

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.