Herc Holdings Inc filed its 10-Q with the SEC, and its figures are now in our data. Revenue over the twelve months to Q3 2026 was $4.9 billion, a 19.4% rise on the year before. That growth rate was down 9.1 percentage points from a quarter earlier.
What stands out in the filings
Net income rose 113.0% over the year while free cash flow rose 19.2%. Reported profit and cash are moving at different speeds.
Profit and margins
Earnings grew far faster than cash generation. The trailing net margin was 2.5%, with net income over the twelve months reaching $123.0 million, a 113.0% increase on the year before.
Cash flow
Cash generation improved as operating cash flow over the twelve months reached $1.3 billion, up 15.0% on the year before. Capital spending was $141.0 million, or 2.9% of revenue, leaving free cash flow at $1.1 billion, a 19.2% rise on the year before. This represented a free-cash-flow margin of 22.9%, down 0.0 percentage points from a year earlier.
The share base
The average diluted share count rose 11.4% over the year, meaning each share claims a smaller slice of the profit.
Against its own history
Set against the company’s own record, today’s free-cash-flow margin of 22.9% is higher than 32% of past quarterly readings, which have ranged from −16.5% to 33.6%. Today’s twelve-month revenue growth rate of 19.4% is higher than 77% of past readings (−84.8% to 33.1%).
What it means for our valuation
These trends feed directly into the share value in our model. In that model, growth 5 percentage points lower would reduce the value by 28.4%, while 5 percentage points higher would raise it by 36.4%. A free-cash-flow margin 1 percentage point lower would lower the value by 5.2%.
Next to watch
The next filing will show whether the trends above continue, slow or reverse.
