Do These Results Mean Hertz Has Switched Gears?

As the lingering effects of the recession are slowly diminishing, business and leisure travel has picked up, pushing worldwide car-rental revenue up by 14 percent. In addition to the acquisition, Hertz’s fourth-quarter results were bolstered by this increase, making sales in the past quarter the strongest they have been in three years, according to MarketWatch. Even with the quarterly loss, revenue came in at $2.32 billion, an increase of 15 percent from last year. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected sales of $2.27 billion.

Changes within Hertz itself and the slowly-improving economy led the company to predict full-year results above what analysts have estimated. Hertz has forecast per-share earnings between $1.82 and $1.92 on revenue between $10.85 billion and $10.95 billion, while analysts expect earnings of $1.78 a share on revenue of $10.79 billion.

Hertz’s results gave investors renewed confidence in the company’s earnings power, and shares jumped as much as 8 percent, hitting $20.23 after the earnings report was released. Ahead of the release, the stock was up almost 25 percent since January.

Frissora said that these results were a “record.”

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