03.11.2026

Solid pick up at Herc

US based Herc Rentals has reported a positive third quarter I terms of revenue growth, with a sharp jump in profits.

YTD

Total revenues for the nine months to the end of September increased 17% to $3.7 billion. Rental revenues increased 21.1% to $3.3 billion.

Pre-tax profit rebounded sharply from a $16 million loss this time last year to a $121 million profit this year, although this is still well below what it achieved in 2024. Most of the change came from the fact that 2025 was hit with $185 million of transaction costs related to the H&E acquisition, along with a reduction in interest costs.
Capex Capital expenditure over the nine months was $1.06 billion an increase of 26% on last year, while sales of used equipment from the fleet also was only marginally higher at 319 million. The average age of the fleet went from 45 months to 46 months.

Net Debt at the end of the period was 2.5% lower at $8.0 billion

Third Quarter

Total revenues increased 4.6% to at $1.3.6 billion
Pre-Tax Profit more than tripled to $120 million.

Full year forecasts
Revenues: rental: $4.47 to $4.55 billion, which means total revenues will be in the region of $5 to $5.1 billion.

Capex $1.45 billion to $1.6 billion, with used equipment sales from the fleet of between $450 and $500 million.

Chief executive Larry Silber said:“Our team delivered an exceptional third quarter, leveraging our scale, broad equipment offering, deep customer relationships and superior project execution to capitalise on accelerating customer demand.”

“Equipment rental revenue increased 12%, at the same time expert fleet management drove high time utilisation and disciplined fleet deployment, while pricing improvement and a higher speciality mix further enhanced fleet efficiency.”

“The strong performance was led by robust mega project volume and double digit expansion in our speciality solutions business. Revenue synergies from H&E were an increasing contributor in the quarter, consistent with the second half weighting we previously outlined, as new speciality branches continued to ramp and we advanced cross selling, broader fleet access and national account penetration. Local market demand remained stable.”

“Growth in our large project pipeline continues to exceed our expectations, with expanding opportunities across data centres, infrastructure, manufacturing facilities, and energy projects.

New CEO in 2007

The company has also announced that Larry Silber will step down as chief executive in January, having served almost 11 years in the role. At that time, he will become executive chairman.

He will be replaced by the current president Aaron Birnbaum, who will add the top job to his current work as president, while joining the board of directors.

Vertikal Comment

This looks like a solid result from Herc, which appears to be digesting the H&E acquisition as well as can be expected. It is helped by the proliferation of large infrastructure projects now coming on stream, as well as all the data centres that are in production or planned.

It is always fortuitous when work picks up like this after you have taken on a mass of extra debt to fund an acquisition. All too often it goes the other way, with debt service costs increasing just as a recession or downturn comes along.

Silber has done a pretty good job over the years, often in tough circumstances, following the 2016 separation from the Hertz car rental business. In the 10 years since Herc revenues have grown from $1.1 billion to almost $5 billion.
See also:
Hertz to become Herc Rentals
Tough first year for Herc