Herc Holdings Inc. $HRI Shares Sold by Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P.

Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P. cut its stake in Herc Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HRI) by 36.9% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 595,037 shares of the transportation company’s stock after selling 348,685 shares during the quarter. Vaughan Nelson Investment Management L.P.’s holdings in Herc were worth $88,292,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Herc during the second quarter valued at approximately $242,697,000. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 723,239 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP raised its stake in Herc by 233.1% in the 3rd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 420,512 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $49,057,000 after purchasing an additional 294,265 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in Herc by 3,306.3% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 292,328 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $34,106,000 after purchasing an additional 283,746 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its holdings in Herc by 40.0% in the 2nd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 825,511 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $108,712,000 after purchasing an additional 235,694 shares in the last quarter. 93.11% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

HRI has been the subject of a number of research reports. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of Herc from $185.00 to $165.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, March 9th. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Herc in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Herc from $160.00 to $175.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. KeyCorp decreased their target price on shares of Herc from $190.00 to $165.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 16th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Herc from $150.00 to $165.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 14th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Herc presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $171.86.

Herc Price Performance

Herc stock opened at $96.82 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.31, a quick ratio of 1.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.17. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $139.98 and a 200 day moving average price of $139.15. Herc Holdings Inc. has a 12-month low of $96.18 and a 12-month high of $188.35. The stock has a market cap of $3.23 billion, a P/E ratio of -537.88, a PEG ratio of 13.53 and a beta of 1.73.

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

Herc Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 4th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 18th were paid a $0.70 dividend. This represents a $2.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 18th. Herc’s dividend payout ratio is -1,555.56%.

Herc Profile

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.