30.07.2025

Modest first half for United

US based United Rentals has reported flat first half profits on rising revenues.

Total revenues for the six months to the end of June were $7.66 billion, 5.5 percent higher than at the same point last year.
Almost all of the revenue gains came from rental, while used equipment sales fell but were compensated to a degree by high new equipment sales.

Pre-tax profit was very marginally lower than last year at $1.53 billion, although that was 12 percent higher than in the same period in 2023.

Capital expenditure in the first half was $2.27 billion 12 percent higher than at the same time last year.

Second quarter revenues improved 4.5 percent, to $3.94 billion, with a pre-tax profit of $839 million, half a percent higher than the same quarter last year.

Full year outlookThe company has tweaked its full year forecast slightly increasing the lower end of its revenue range to $15.8 billion while holding the top end of its expectations at $16.1 billion, which represent an increase of three to five percent over 2024. It is also holding its full year capital expenditure forecast at $3.65 to $3.95 billion, or $2.2 to $2.5 billion net after sales of used machines from the fleet.

Chief executive Matt Flannery said: “We are pleased with our solid second quarter results, which reflect a continuation of the momentum we reported last quarter. Our updated guidance is a result of the growth we achieved across both our general rentals and specialty businesses, and supported by our customer optimism, backlogs and the momentum we are carrying into the remainder of the construction season.”

“Looking forward, our team’s commitment to living our One UR culture every day and focusing on being the partner of choice for our customers, is what allows us to deliver the results our shareholders have come to expect. We continue to see particular strength in our specialty business and in large projects this year, and believe our unique value proposition, coupled with our ‘go to market’ approach, ‘best in class’ technology offerings, and smart capital allocation will enable us to continue to generate profitable growth, strong free cash flow and compelling returns. To this point, I’m also pleased to announce a $400 million increase to our planned share repurchases this year, supported by the additional free cash flow we expect to generate in 2025.”

Vertikal Comment

This looks like fairly decent first half from United, the number are quite amazing, and highlight how big a market North America is these days when you think that in spite of its billion dollar revenues, United only claims a 15 percent market share, and in reality if all of the smallest rental houses are included it might even be slightly lower than that.

It is also interesting to see that in spite of the higher rental revenues, it is hard to get this to flow through to the bottom line. As always it will be interesting to compare these numbers with Sunbelt’s when they are released – its market share is estimated at 11 percent.

Interesting times.