The shares of Hertz Global Holdings Inc (NYSE:HTZ) are up by 12.13% in the morning session after the company announced filing a financial restatement yesterday. According to the announcement, the company has filed an annual report on Form 10-K for the year ending on December 31, 2014 with restated results for 2012 and 2013. Hertz Global further announced that it has now filed all the necessary reports with the SEC, fulfilling the existing NYSE standards. In addition to these filings, the company released its business outlook for fiscal 2015, including the spinoff of its rental equipment unit (HERC), cost saving strategies, capacity plans, and fleet details.
John Tague, CEO and President of Hertz Global Holdings Inc (NYSE:HTZ), said, “2015 is a transition year for Hertz. We are making important investments in our fleet, systems and service, and adding new talent to complement the existing expertise throughout the Company. In addition, we are taking actions to rationalize the Company’s cost platform, dramatically improve customer satisfaction and reset our capacity. These actions and early results are indicative of the progress we are making across the organization.”
The firm reaffirmed its share repurchase program of $1 billion worth of shares. In the case of the spinoff of HERC, Hertz Global Holdings Inc is expecting the separation to be complete by the second quarter of 2016. The company is expecting annual-cost savings of $300 million by the end of the current year. Hertz Global Holdings Inc (NYSE:HTZ) released guidance for fiscal 2015 of a consolidated EBITDA of $1.45 billion to $1.55 billion. Mr. Tague added, “Progress on our initiatives to reduce capacity, meet our fleet refresh targets and capture cost savings will be evident in the third quarter, which we believe will be an inflection point for the year. And of course, we expect those benefits to become progressively more visible in 2016.”
Hertz Global Holdings Inc (NYSE:HTZ) has attracted activist investors including Carl Icahn of Icahn Capital and Barry Rosenstein of JANA Partners. Carl Icahn took an activist stake in the company during the third quarter of 2014. Icahn Capital held a major position in the company of 51.92 million shares valued at $1.13 billion as of March 31. Rosenstein held 41.78 million shares of Hertz Global Holdings Inc in his portfolio at the end of the first quarter, with a value of $905.82 million. Larry Robbins of Glenview Capital and Tiger Global Management, led by Chase Coleman, are among the other major shareholders of the company.
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The shares of Hertz Global Holdings Inc (NYSE:HTZ) have declined by 14.89% year-to-date and are trading at $19.52 as of the reporting period. Smart money held a bearish outlook of the auto-rental company at the end of the first quarter, with 63 hedge fund investors holding $5.01 billion in the company’s shares against previous holdings of $6.39 billion from 72 investors at the end of 2014. Smart money was right to flee the stock at the time amid the company’s financial missteps, as Hertz Global Holdings Inc (NYSE:HTZ) was among the stocks incurring major losses during the second quarter, with a drop of 16%. According to our database, eight hedge fund billionaires had positions in the auto-rental company at the end of the first quarter, with aggregate investments of $3.7 billion in the company.
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