American Century Companies Inc. Grows Stake in Herc Holdings Inc. $HRI

American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Herc Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HRI) by 8.1% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,301,975 shares of the transportation company’s stock after buying an additional 97,235 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc.’s holdings in Herc were worth $151,889,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in Herc by 24.2% during the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,709,718 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $488,533,000 after acquiring an additional 723,239 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Herc during the second quarter worth about $242,697,000. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL raised its position in Herc by 2.4% in the second quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 1,113,836 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $146,681,000 after purchasing an additional 25,634 shares during the period. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. raised its stake in shares of Herc by 34.7% in the 3rd quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. now owns 943,722 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $110,095,000 after acquiring an additional 243,320 shares during the period. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its position in shares of Herc by 40.0% during the second quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 825,511 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $108,712,000 after buying an additional 235,694 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.11% of the company’s stock.

Herc Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:HRI opened at $139.55 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.17, a quick ratio of 1.31 and a current ratio of 1.31. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $158.81 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $141.50. The stock has a market cap of $4.66 billion, a PE ratio of -775.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 18.85 and a beta of 1.73. Herc Holdings Inc. has a one year low of $96.18 and a one year high of $188.35.

Herc (NYSE:HRI) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 17th. The transportation company reported $2.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.87 by $0.20. Herc had a return on equity of 13.21% and a net margin of 0.02%.The business had revenue of $1.21 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.25 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $3.58 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 27.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that Herc Holdings Inc. will post 12.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Herc Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 4th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 18th will be paid a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.0%. Herc’s dividend payout ratio is -1,555.56%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Wall Street Zen raised Herc from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, November 2nd. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Herc from $195.00 to $185.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 19th. Robert W. Baird cut their target price on shares of Herc from $200.00 to $198.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. KeyCorp lowered their price target on Herc from $200.00 to $190.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, February 18th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Herc in a report on Thursday, January 22nd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $178.29.

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.