Bailard Inc. Acquires Shares of 3,688 Herc Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HRI)

Bailard Inc. bought a new position in shares of Herc Holdings Inc. (NYSE:HRI) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 3,688 shares of the transportation company’s stock, valued at approximately $698,000.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of HRI. Chartwell Investment Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Herc by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Chartwell Investment Partners LLC now owns 7,995 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $1,275,000 after purchasing an additional 65 shares in the last quarter. MQS Management LLC boosted its stake in Herc by 3.8% in the third quarter. MQS Management LLC now owns 1,945 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $310,000 after buying an additional 71 shares in the last quarter. Stifel Financial Corp grew its position in Herc by 4.1% in the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 2,019 shares of the transportation company’s stock valued at $322,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. Salem Investment Counselors Inc. raised its stake in Herc by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Salem Investment Counselors Inc. now owns 21,126 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $4,000,000 after acquiring an additional 90 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Covestor Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Herc by 70.4% in the third quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 322 shares of the transportation company’s stock worth $51,000 after acquiring an additional 133 shares during the last quarter. 93.11% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, The Goldman Sachs Group raised their price target on shares of Herc from $204.00 to $234.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $219.75.

Herc Trading Down 5.7 %

NYSE HRI opened at $135.35 on Tuesday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $189.76 and its 200 day moving average is $185.20. The company has a quick ratio of 1.38, a current ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.99. Herc Holdings Inc. has a twelve month low of $124.70 and a twelve month high of $246.88. The company has a market cap of $3.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.61 and a beta of 2.04.

Herc (NYSE:HRI) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The transportation company reported $3.58 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.98 by ($0.40). The company had revenue of $934.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $919.84 million. Herc had a return on equity of 26.48% and a net margin of 5.91%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Herc Holdings Inc. will post 12.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Herc Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 4th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, February 18th will be given a $0.70 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, February 18th. This represents a $2.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.07%. This is an increase from Herc’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.67. Herc’s payout ratio is 37.79%.

About Herc

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.