Hertz swings back to profit in Q3 as leisure travel recovers

Hertz Global Holdings Inc. HTZZ, +5.41%, which emerged from bankruptcy in July, said Thursday it had net income of $571 million, or $1.13 a share, in the third quarter, after a loss of $222 million, or $1.42 a share, in the year-earlier period. Revenue doubled to $2.226 billion from $1.268 billion. The FactSet consensus was for EPS of 85 cents and revenue of $2.225 billion. The revenue number reflects "the continued rebound in leisure travel and tight fleet inventory as Hertz executes against its strategic roadmap," the rental car company said in a statement. "While volume continued to be lower compared to 2019 levels, these headwinds were partially mitigated by improvements in pricing power." The company earlier this week announced plans for an "initial" order of a total of 100,000 Teslas TSLA, +2.95% by the end of 2022. The company also said it would invest in new EV charging infrastructure across its global operations in a bid to offer the largest EV rental fleet in North America. It ended the third quarter with $1.5 billion in outstanding non-vehicle debt, a $1.3 billion first lien revolving credit facility and $366 million of letters of credit outstanding. It had $3.8 billion in liquidity as of Sept. 30. Shares were not yet active premarket.