Herc Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HRI) Short Interest Down 11.6% in February

Herc Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HRI) saw a large decline in short interest in the month of February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 954,400 shares, a decline of 11.6% from the January 31st total of 1,080,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 384,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.5 days. Approximately 3.4% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Herc Stock Performance

NYSE HRI opened at $128.97 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.38, a quick ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.99. The business’s 50 day moving average is $186.08 and its two-hundred day moving average is $184.41. Herc has a 12-month low of $124.70 and a 12-month high of $246.88. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.41, a PEG ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 2.04.

Herc (NYSE:HRI) last released its quarterly earnings results 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). The firm had revenue of $934.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $919.84 million. Herc had a return on equity of 26.48% and a net margin of 5.91%. Research analysts expect that Herc will post 12.84 EPS for the current year.

Herc Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Investors of record on Tuesday, February 18th were issued a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.17%. This is a boost from Herc’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Herc’s dividend payout ratio is currently 37.79%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Herc

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Argent Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Herc by 38.2% in the 4th quarter. Argent Capital Management LLC now owns 6,907 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $1,308,000 after acquiring an additional 1,910 shares during the period. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Herc by 369.9% in the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 343 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $55,000 after acquiring an additional 270 shares during the period. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Herc by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 665,904 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $106,165,000 after acquiring an additional 3,006 shares during the period. TT International Asset Management LTD grew its holdings in shares of Herc by 324.6% in the 3rd quarter. TT International Asset Management LTD now owns 14,346 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $2,287,000 after acquiring an additional 10,967 shares during the period. Finally, Motley Fool Wealth Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Herc by 26.4% in the 3rd quarter. Motley Fool Wealth Management LLC now owns 82,863 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $13,211,000 after acquiring an additional 17,315 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.11% of the company’s stock.

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.