23.10.2025

United on target for $16 billion year

US rental company United Rentals has posted another record quarter in terms of revenues, which came close to $12 billion over the past nine months.
YTD
Total revenues for the nine months to the end of September were $11.89 billion, an increase of 5.7 percent over the same period in 2024. All parts of the business contributed to the increase, including new and used equipment sales.
Pre-tax profits for the period however, declined 1.3 percent to $2.48 billion, due mostly to higher cost of rentals and higher depreciation.

Third Quarter
Third quarter revenues increased six percent to $4.23 billion, with pre-tax profits slipping by the same percentage as the nine months – 1.3 percent -to $946 million.

Capex
Capital expenditure on rental equipment was increased just over 14 percent on the same period last year to $3.76 billion.
The company has also increased its full year capital expenditure to between $4.2 billion up seven percent on last year.

Full year forecast
United is foresting record full year revenues of $16.0 to $16.2 billion compared to $15.8 to $16.1 it was projecting three months ago. This latest forecast would represent an increase from 2024 of just over five percent.

Chief executive Matthew Flannery said: “Our third quarter results were again supported by our unrelenting focus on being the partner of choice to our customers as we serve their needs across both construction and industrial end-markets. Our team did an outstanding job as we continued to lean into growth across both our general rentals and specialty businesses, and our updated guidance reflects the momentum we expect to carry through the rest of the year.”

“Looking ahead, we are encouraged by the growth opportunities our customers see on the horizon, particularly within large projects and across key verticals. The combination of our one stop shop model, unparalleled service levels, and industry leading technology differentiates our value proposition to customers and enables us to outpace the market. I’m very proud of the company we continue to build, supported by a well proven strategy focused on profitable growth, strong through cycle free cash flow generation and prudent capital allocation, all of which create compelling long term value for our shareholders.”

Vertikal Comment

An interesting and positive set of numbers, but you could argue that a $630,000 increase in rental revenues is not actually adding anything to the bottom line. But that is of course way over simplistic. It is more likely that higher underlying inflation is beginning to have any impact and could be set to get worse as tariffs start to bite.

Its hard to knock a rental business that generates such mind boggling numbers, with a decent profit and cash flow, year on year.

It is also good to see that it is ramping up its capaital expenditure on new equipment again. When you look at its branch network in North America - now 1,639 locations with most urban areas of any size well covered it highlights how the company is managing to increase sales per branch, by widening its product range to include speciality equipment and wining customers over with its slick online ordering and tracking. It is probably just as well that it failed to acquire H&E earlier this year. see: United's acqusition of H&E - Off