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Hertz tops 2Q forecasts
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July 14, 2000: 7:28 a.m. ET
Car rental leader posts record profit, announces daily and weekly rate hikes
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Car rental leader Hertz Corp. posted record second-quarter profit Friday to beat earnings estimates, and announced it is raising rates on non-contract rentals.
The company earned net income of $103.7 million, or 96 cents a diluted share, in the quarter -- although $5.4 million, or about 5 cents a share, came on a gain from the sale of real estate.
 Analysts surveyed by earnings tracker First Call forecast that the company would earn 89 cents a share. Officials from First Call weren't immediately available to comment if the forecasts included or excluded the real estate gain. The company earned $87.9 million, or 81 cents a share, in the year-earlier period.
Revenue rose 10.4 percent to $1.3 billion from $1.2 billion a year earlier.
For the first six months of 2000, the company saw net income climb to $160.0 million, or $1.48 a diluted share, up from $136.7 million, or $1.26 a share in the year-earlier period. Revenue rose 10.1 percent to $2.4 billion from $2.2 billion.
Craig Koch, the company's president and chief executive, said Hertz is on track to provide its seventh consecutive record profit. First Call forecasts the company will earn $3.47 a share this year, up from $3.10 a year in 1999.
The company said the non-contract daily and weekend rates will rise by $3 per day and that weekly rates will climb $10, effective immediately. The company said the increases are needed to offset increasing costs of vehicles, wages and interest rates.
Shares of Hertz (HRZ: Research, Estimates) gained 1-15/16 to 31-3/16 in Thursday trading. 
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Hertz Corp.
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