Hertz Global Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:HTZ) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Stephen Scherr: Well, I think, look, obviously we generate appreciably more cash flow in the back half of the year. The back half would be the point in the year to sort of give consideration to sort of a take up in share repurchase. But our strategy has always been looking at fleet and non-fleet CapEx, and then looking at share repurchase as an option. We have considerable capacity under our existing authorization to do that. We’ll continue to sort of look at where value sits in the stock. We share obviously a rather bullish view on what the forward looks like. And so, the opportunity will present itself in the second half, and you should think of us as a continued buyer of stock as we move through the back half of the year.

Ian Zaffino: Okay, thank you very much.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of John Healy of Northcoast Research.

John Healy: Thank you. I hate to try to get in the weeds on this, but I just kind of wanted to spend a little time on the depreciation line for the quarter. Obviously, a nice benefit Q2 over Q1. Your fleet went up say 40,000 cars, and I can imagine those cars are coming in at higher depreciation than previous. So, I was just trying to kind of back into the gain that you had this quarter on the fleet disposition. And I don’t know, my guess is it’s probably $125 million or so. So, if the used car market was softer in Q2 that we can see that versus Q1, you had that big gain. Why would you not have another big gain in Q3? Is it just the age of the cars you’re moving through? I’m just trying to understand kind of why the snap from 280 down to 198 and then back to 280 again.

Alex Brooks: Yes, sure, John. This is Alex. You’re right. So, for Q2, we had about $110 million gains on car sales in the quarter. And as we look ahead to Q3, we’ve got – we obviously have a dynamic fleet. Our fleet consists of different vehicles, different ages. And as we look ahead, there’s some fleet mix impact there in terms of what we expect to see. And again, we’re managing also I think to a residual environment in which we see some downside risk versus some upside risk. So, in thinking about that forward depreciation rate of 275 to 300, we’ve tried to incorporate to the best of our knowledge what we see happening in terms of fleet plan dynamics, as well as our view on the spot market and the market in which those car sales will happen.

John Healy: Okay, that makes sense. And then just on your 500 million …

Stephen Scherr: Hey, John, it’s Stephen. Just before we move off that, so let’s talk about the different channels that we have, okay? The wholesale market is a spot market, right? Now, it is as you see in the Manheim Rental Index, down quite considerably over the latter part of June into July, all consistent with the comments that Alex made earlier about it being a round trip on the year. As we look to use kind of what I would describe as more proprietary channels, the likes of Carvana or for that matter, our own retail network, there’s a longer sale period there than there is in the spot market. And so, right now, for example, those proprietary channels can yield $2,000 to $3,000 more per car than what we see in the wholesale market, okay, but they require a 30- or 40-day sort of process to get through.