Hertz Global Holdings, Inc (HTZ) Stock Price & How to Invest

Hertz Global Holdings (HTZ) is one of the largest vehicle-rental companies in the world, operating the Hertz, Dollar, and Thrifty brands across airport and off-airport locations in the United States and internationally. The business buys or leases a large fleet of cars, rents them to leisure and business travelers, and later sells the vehicles into the used-car market, so its profitability depends heavily on rental pricing (revenue per unit), fleet utilization, daily per-vehicle operating costs, and how much value each car loses to depreciation before it is sold. Because vehicles are financed largely through asset-backed securitizations secured by the fleet, Hertz carries a very large debt balance relative to its equity.

Hertz has a turbulent recent history. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2020 as travel collapsed during the pandemic, then emerged in 2021 under new ownership with a high-profile plan to electrify its fleet, ordering around 100,000 Tesla vehicles. That EV bet went badly: rapid Tesla price cuts drove steep depreciation, repair and collision costs ran high, and rental demand for EVs disappointed, leading Hertz to sell off tens of thousands of electric vehicles and absorb losses that contributed to billions of dollars in writedowns through 2024. Under CEO Gil West the company has been resetting its fleet mix back toward conventional vehicles, cutting per-vehicle costs, and targeting better unit economics. In 2026 activist investor Bill Ackman's Pershing Square disclosed a stake of nearly 20%, framing Hertz as a turnaround and a potential beneficiary if auto tariffs lift used-car values, which sent the shares sharply higher.

Hertz carries a very large debt load, with total debt around $18 billion and a reported equity deficit, leaving little cushion if results disappoint. Fleet depreciation and used-car prices swing the business dramatically, as the Tesla episode showed, and weak operating cash flow limits flexibility. The company has continued to post net losses and has raised new equity at low prices, diluting existing shareholders, and the turnaround targets for revenue per unit and utilization are ambitious relative to history. Rental demand is cyclical and tied to travel, so a downturn would pressure an already stretched balance sheet.

A simple financial snapshot. These are approximations and refresh quarterly; for current figures see Hertz Global Holdings, Inc's investor relations page or your broker.

• Revenue (TTM): ~$9 billion
• Q1 2026 revenue: ~$2.0 billion, up ~11% year over year
• Q1 2026 net loss: ~$333 million (loss narrowed from ~$443 million)
• Total debt: ~$18.2 billion (much of it vehicle asset-backed)
• Stockholders' equity: Negative (~$0.8 billion equity deficit)
• Market cap: ~$1.6 billion (~316 million shares outstanding)

Hertz is a highly leveraged turnaround, not a steady-earnings business, so traditional multiples like P/E are not meaningful while the company posts losses. The very large debt relative to a small equity market value means the stock behaves like a leveraged option on operational improvement: small changes in fleet economics, used-car values, or refinancing terms move the equity sharply. The figures are approximate and tied to the asOf date.

There are three common ways to get HTZ exposure. Buy shares (or fractional shares) directly at any major broker. Hold an ETF that includes it, which spreads the position across many companies. Or build it into a focused thematic basket, so HTZ sits alongside other stocks that express the same thesis.

Walnut takes the basket route. Describe a thesis where HTZ fits (for example “AI infrastructure” or “dividend-growth large-caps”) and the AI proposes 5 to 6 constituents with target weights. You review the plan and fund it through your own broker when you're ready.

If you believe Hertz can execute its operational turnaround, push revenue per unit and fleet utilization higher, normalize fleet depreciation after the EV reset, and service its large debt while used-car values hold up, then HTZ represents a high-risk, high-reverse-leverage way to express that view, which is roughly the bet Bill Ackman's Pershing Square has made. If instead you doubt the turnaround math, worry about the debt-heavy balance sheet and equity deficit, or expect further dilution, the same leverage that powers the upside also magnifies the downside. In a portfolio HTZ behaves as a speculative, deeply cyclical, balance-sheet-sensitive position rather than a stable holding, and whether it fits depends entirely on your own goals, time horizon, and risk tolerance.

Whether HTZ is worth buying today depends more on your time horizon and what you already hold than on any single call. We walk through valuation, what would have to go right, and the risks in is HTZ a buy?, and where the stock could go from here in the HTZ stock forecast.

For income investors, whether HTZ pays a dividend and how the payout looks is covered in does HTZ pay a dividend?