In the latest round of earnings reports, major equipment rental companies operating in the U.S. – United Rentals, Ashtead Group and Herc Rentals – saw rental revenue growth in the first three months of the year.
Herc Rentals
For its first quarter 2025 earnings, Herc Rentals reported total revenue of $861 million, up 7% from $804 million in the first quarter of 2024. This was driven by a $20 million increase in equipment rental revenue, reflecting uneven demand across end markets and incremental revenue from prior year greenfield locations and acquisitions.
Equipment rental revenue in the first quarter was up 3% to $739 million.
“As expected, the 2025 operating landscape continues to be a tale of two disparate economic trends,” said Larry Silber, Herc Rentals president and chief executive officer. “Our national account business is growing, fueled by federal and private funding for large construction projects like data centers, manufacturing on-shoring and LNG facilities. At the same time, while facility maintenance, municipal and infrastructure projects are supporting the local markets, other more interest-rate sensitive projects continue to be on hold, restricting overall local account growth.”
The company reported a net loss of $18 million in the quarter, driven mostly by the transaction costs of acquiring H&E Rentals.
For the full year 2025, Herc Rentals forecasts equipment rental revenue growth of 4-6% and adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $1.575 billion to $1.650 billion.
United Rentals
United rentals saw $3.1 billion in equipment rental revenue in its first quarter 2025, a 7.4% year-over-year increase. Fleet productivity rose 3.1% year-over-year.
Total revenues for the quarter were $3.7 billion, up 6.7% year-over-year. This included a 46% year-over-year increase in sales of new equipment to $70 million.
“2025 is off to a solid start, reflecting demand across both our construction and industrial end-markets,” said Matthew Flannery, chief executive officer. “I’m pleased with the team’s commitment to putting our customers first, which ultimately translated to record first-quarter revenue and adjusted EBITDA. I’m also pleased to reaffirm our full-year guidance, based on both the momentum we’re carrying into our busy season and continued positive customer sentiment, which, together, reinforce our expectations for another year of profitable growth.”
United Rentals’ net income for the quarter fell 4.4% year-over-year to $518 million, including a $29 million after-tax merger termination benefit from losing the H&E Rentals acquisition to Herc Rentals.
For 2025, United Rentals forecasts total revenue of $15.6 billion to $16.1 billion and adjusted EBITDA of $7.2 billion to $7.45 billion.
Ashtead Group/Sunbelt Rentals
Ashtead Group, the parent company to Sunbelt Rentals, reported $2.6 billion in revenue for its fiscal year 2025 third quarter, down 3% year-over-year from $2.7 billion. Revenue for the first 9 months of the fiscal year was mostly unchanged at $8.3 billion.
Rental revenue in the third quarter rose 1% to $2.4 billion and rose 5% year-over-year to $7.7 billion for the first 9 months of the year.
Operating profit was down 7% to $550 million in the third quarter and down 3% to $2 billion for the first 9 months of the fiscal year.
For the nine months, U.S. rental revenue was up 4% to $5.2 billion, driven by volume and improved rates.
“In North America, the strength of mega projects and hurricane response efforts have more than offset the lower activity levels in local commercial construction markets,” said Chief Executive Brendan Horgan. “These local construction markets have been affected by the prolonged higher interest rate environment. However, underlying demand continues to be strong, and we expect this segment to recover as interest rates stabilize.”
For the company’s full fiscal year 2025, Ashtead Group forecasts rental revenue to be up 3-5% and up 2-4% in the U.S. specifically.
