Herc (NYSE:HRI) Price Target Raised to $178.00 at The Goldman Sachs Group

Herc (NYSE:HRI) had its price target boosted by The Goldman Sachs Group from $155.00 to $178.00 in a research report released on Tuesday morning, Benzinga reports. The Goldman Sachs Group currently has a buy rating on the transportation company’s stock.

Separately, Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Herc from $117.00 to $142.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $152.50.

Herc Stock Performance

NYSE:HRI opened at $158.05 on Tuesday. Herc has a twelve month low of $93.97 and a twelve month high of $171.00. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 1.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.97. The company has a 50-day moving average of $158.56 and a 200-day moving average of $139.68. The firm has a market cap of $4.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 2.27.

Herc (NYSE:HRI) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 13th. The transportation company reported $3.24 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.29 by ($0.05). Herc had a net margin of 10.58% and a return on equity of 30.21%. The business had revenue of $831.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $858.06 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $3.44 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Herc will post 13.86 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Herc Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 7th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, February 21st were paid a dividend of $0.665 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, February 20th. This is a positive change from Herc’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.63. This represents a $2.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.68%. Herc’s dividend payout ratio is currently 21.98%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Herc

In other news, SVP Tamir Peres sold 3,545 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $159.10, for a total value of $564,009.50. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 41,236 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $6,560,647.60. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 1.70% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Herc

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Herc by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,898,147 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $431,505,000 after purchasing an additional 60,715 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. lifted its position in shares of Herc by 5.8% in the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 2,739,142 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $374,852,000 after purchasing an additional 149,439 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Herc by 37.8% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,667,255 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $198,303,000 after purchasing an additional 457,697 shares in the last quarter. Theleme Partners LLP lifted its position in shares of Herc by 26.2% in the fourth quarter. Theleme Partners LLP now owns 817,891 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $121,776,000 after purchasing an additional 169,886 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Electron Capital Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of Herc by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Electron Capital Partners LLC now owns 605,387 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $90,136,000 after purchasing an additional 20,358 shares in the last quarter. 93.11% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Herc Company Profile

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.