United Rentals Beats on Both Top and Bottom Lines

Seth Jayson, The Motley Fool
Updated

United Rentals (NYS: URI) reported earnings on April 17. Here are the numbers you need to know.

The 10-second takeaway
For the quarter ended March 31 (Q1), United Rentals beat expectations on revenue and beat expectations on earnings per share.

Compared to the prior-year quarter, revenue grew significantly and GAAP earnings per share grew.


Margins grew across the board.

Revenue details
United Rentals tallied revenue of $656.0 million. The six analysts polled by S&P Capital IQ expected to see sales of $610.0 million on the same basis. GAAP reported sales were 25% higher than the prior-year quarter's $523.0 million.

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Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Dollar amounts in millions. Non-GAAP figures may vary to maintain comparability with estimates.

EPS details
Non-GAAP EPS came in at $0.36. The 10 earnings estimates compiled by S&P Capital IQ predicted $0.09 per share on the same basis. GAAP EPS were $0.17 for Q1 compared to -$0.34 per share for the prior-year quarter.

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Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Non-GAAP figures may vary to maintain comparability with estimates.

Margin details
For the quarter, gross margin was 50.0%, 470 basis points better than the prior-year quarter. Operating margin was 14.8%, 890 basis points better than the prior-year quarter. Net margin was 2.0%, 580 basis points better than the prior-year quarter.

Looking ahead
Next quarter's average estimate for revenue is $759.4 million. On the bottom line, the average EPS estimate is $0.75.

Next year's average estimate for revenue is $3.11 billion. The average EPS estimate is $3.36.

Investor sentiment
The stock has a two-star rating (out of five) at Motley Fool CAPS, with 204 members out of 229 rating the stock outperform, and 25 members rating it underperform. Among 70 CAPS All-Star picks (recommendations by the highest-ranked CAPS members), 62 give United Rentals a green thumbs-up, and eight give it a red thumbs-down.

Of Wall Street recommendations tracked by S&P Capital IQ, the average opinion on United Rentals is buy, with an average price target of $46.17.

At the time thisarticle was published Seth Jayson had no position in any company mentioned here at the time of publication. You can view his stock holdings here. He is co-advisor ofMotley Fool Hidden Gems, which provides new small-cap ideas every month, backed by a real-money portfolio. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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