Hertz (HTZ) Stock Climbs 20% After Surprising Wall Street With Q2 Results

TLDR

• HTZ stock surged 20%+ in Friday premarket, after closing up 29.49% the previous session
• Q2 revenue hit $2.4 billion, beating Wall Street’s estimate of $2.28 billion
• Adjusted loss of 11 cents per share beat estimates of a 24-cent loss
• Revenue per day rose 9% year over year, the strongest Q2 on record
• CEO Gil West said the stock’s valuation is “tough to understand” given improving fundamentals

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Hertz Global (HTZ) stock was up more than 20% in Friday premarket trading at $2.42, following a 29.49% gain in the prior session. The jump came after the company posted second-quarter results that cleared Wall Street’s bar on both revenue and earnings.

Hertz Global Holdings, Inc., HTZ

Q2 revenue came in at $2.4 billion, up 10% year over year and ahead of the $2.28 billion analyst consensus. The company posted an adjusted loss of 11 cents per share, better than the expected loss of 24 cents.

Adjusted corporate EBITDA reached $81 million, well above both Oppenheimer’s estimate of $40 million and the Street’s estimate of $59 million. That was up $63 million from a year earlier.

Record Revenue Per Day

Revenue per day increased 9% year over year, marking the strongest second-quarter performance on record. Revenue per unit also rose 8% to a record $1,542, exceeding the company’s own long-term target.

Around 6 to 7 percentage points of the RPD gain came from commercial initiatives, 2 to 3 points from industry pricing, and less than half a point from the FIFA World Cup.

Fleet utilization improved 80 basis points to 79%, even as recall volume jumped 300% year over year, affecting about 15,000 vehicles per month. Vehicle recalls reduced EBITDA by more than $55 million in the first half of 2026.

U.S. airport rental RPD rose 12% year over year, driving a second straight quarter of double-digit global revenue growth.

CEO Pushes Back on Valuation

CEO Gil West was direct in his assessment after the results. He said Hertz’s market cap had fallen to roughly one-third of where it stood 90 days earlier, despite stronger liquidity and better operating results.

West called the stock’s current valuation “tough to understand” and argued it does not reflect the company’s improving fundamentals. Oppenheimer reiterated its Perform rating following the results, while InvestingPro flagged the stock as appearing overvalued at current levels.

The stock is still down 60% year-to-date, even after this week’s surge.

Hertz ended Q2 with $984 million in liquidity after completing a $350 million exchangeable senior secured notes offering. The company carries a total debt burden of $20.6 billion.

For Q3, Hertz guided adjusted corporate EBITDA of $275 million to $325 million and expects positive earnings per share. For full-year 2026, it forecast EBITDA of $225 million to $275 million and year-end liquidity of $1 billion to $1.4 billion.

Management expects more than $500 million of EBITDA improvement in 2026, following a $1.2 billion improvement in 2025.

The company reaffirmed its 2027 target of $1 billion in adjusted corporate EBITDA and said it expects to return to full-year GAAP profitability and generate positive free cash flow.

Hertz also said its ORO Mobility business, which runs on Uber’s platform in Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Northern New Jersey, is on track to generate more than $600 million in revenue in 2026.