Insider Selling: Herc Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HRI) COO Sells $890,216.52 in Stock

Herc Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HRI) COO Aaron Birnbaum sold 5,844 shares of Herc stock in a transaction dated Thursday, April 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $152.33, for a total transaction of $890,216.52. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 48,232 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,347,180.56. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link.

Herc Trading Up 1.0 %

Shares of Herc stock opened at $144.48 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.10 billion, a PE ratio of 11.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.75 and a beta of 2.27. The company has a current ratio of 1.51, a quick ratio of 1.51 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.95. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $159.03 and its 200 day moving average is $142.56. Herc Holdings Inc. has a 1 year low of $93.97 and a 1 year high of $171.00.

Herc (NYSE:HRI) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 13th. The transportation company reported $3.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.29 by ($0.05). The company had revenue of $831.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $858.06 million. Herc had a net margin of 10.31% and a return on equity of 28.68%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $3.44 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that Herc Holdings Inc. will post 14.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Herc Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 7th. Investors of record on Wednesday, February 21st were issued 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 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.84%. Herc’s payout ratio is 21.97%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Herc

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Herc by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,898,147 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $431,505,000 after acquiring an additional 60,715 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in Herc by 37.8% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,667,255 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $198,303,000 after acquiring an additional 457,697 shares during the last quarter. Theleme Partners LLP grew its holdings in Herc by 26.2% during the 4th quarter. Theleme Partners LLP now owns 817,891 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $121,776,000 after acquiring an additional 169,886 shares during the last quarter. Electron Capital Partners LLC grew its holdings in Herc by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Electron Capital Partners LLC now owns 605,387 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $90,136,000 after acquiring an additional 20,358 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Channing Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Herc by 10.1% during the 4th quarter. Channing Capital Management LLC now owns 499,502 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $74,371,000 after acquiring an additional 45,952 shares during the last quarter. 93.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on HRI. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Herc from $117.00 to $142.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of Herc from $155.00 to $178.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 16th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Herc from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $152.50.

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.