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If You Invested $1000 in United Rentals a Decade Ago, This is How Much It'd Be Worth Now

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How much a stock's price changes over time is a significant driver for most investors. Not only can price performance impact your portfolio, but it can help you compare investment results across sectors and industries as well.

Another factor that can influence investors is FOMO, or the fear of missing out, especially with tech giants and popular consumer-facing stocks.

What if you'd invested in United Rentals (URI - Free Report) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to URI for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?

United Rentals' Business In-Depth

With that in mind, let's take a look at United Rentals' main business drivers.

Headquartered in Stamford, CT, United Rentals, Inc. is the largest equipment rental company in the world, with an integrated network of 1,390 rental locations in United States, Canada and Europe. Moreover, it operates in 49 states and every Canadian province. The company offers 4,500 classes of equipment for rent at a total original equipment cost (“OEC”) of $17.43 billion (as of September 2022).

The company’s customer base includes construction and industrial companies, utilities, municipalities, government agencies, independent contractors and homeowners and other individuals that use equipment for projects that range from simple repairs to major renovations. The company’s principal products and services are equipment rental, sale of rental equipment, new equipment, contractor supplies, services and other.

United Rentals serves customers as a single-source solution, provided through two business segments: General Rentals and Specialty or Trench, Power and Fluid Solutions.

General Rentals (accounted for 75.7% of total revenues in 2021) includes the rental of construction, aerial and industrial equipment, general tools and light equipment, along with related services and activities. The segment includes the rental of the following: i) general construction and industrial equipment ii) aerial work platforms and iii) general tools and light equipment. The general rentals segment caters to 11 geographic regions — Carolinas, Gulf South, Industrial (which serves the geographic Gulf region and has a strong industrial presence), Mid-Atlantic, Mid Central, Midwest, Northeast, Pacific West, South, Southeast and Western Canada — and operates throughout the United States and Canada.

Specialty (24.3%) includes the rental of specialty construction products and related services like trench safety equipment, power and HVAC equipment, and fluid solutions equipment.

Bottom Line

Anyone can invest, but building a successful investment portfolio requires research, patience, and a little bit of risk. So, if you had invested in United Rentals ten years ago, you're likely feeling pretty good about your investment today.

According to our calculations, a $1000 investment made in January 2013 would be worth $8,010.58, or a 701.06% gain, as of January 25, 2023. Investors should keep in mind that this return excludes dividends but includes price appreciation.

The S&P 500 rose 168.72% and the price of gold increased 12.22% over the same time frame in comparison.

Analysts are anticipating more upside for URI.

United Rentals’ third-quarter 2022 earnings beat the respective Zacks Consensus Estimate by 3% but revenues missed the same by 1.2%. Earnings and revenues grew 40.9% and 17.5% year over year, respectively. The results were driven by higher rental revenues (up 20%), fleet productivity (up 8.9%) and absorptions, mainly attributable to the broad-based recovery of activity across end markets served by the company. Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded 240 basis points (bps), owing to higher margins from rental revenues. Even its new upbeat 2022 guidance exhibits broad-based growth across its verticals, with persistent growth opportunities for datacenters, distribution centers and renewables as well as the automotive and ship plants projects. Shares of United Rentals have outperformed the industry year to date. However, supply-chain disruptions are risks.

Shares have gained 9.79% over the past four weeks and there have been 2 higher earnings estimate revisions for fiscal 2022 compared to none lower. The consensus estimate has moved up as well.

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