Buy -- Price 2.21 on March 10
by FTN Equity Capital Markets

Enterprise agreed to purchase the "assets" of Advantage Rent-a-Car out of bankruptcy for roughly $19 million ... . We believe Enterprise's pending purchase was driven by expansion of current Enterprise brands, and to prevent HTZ from rolling out the Simply Wheelz [discount] offering into new markets. Industry contacts don't believe Enterprise will look to operate the Advantage brand over the long run [and don't] see the Enterprise acquisition ... as a signal of looming changes in the industry's competitive structure. Market cap: $817 million.

The largest car-rental company in the world was among the most active names on the NYSE Monday.

Jeff Macke offered rental car giant Hertz (HTZ) as one of the biggest losers of $135 oil. The summer travel season is going to be worse than people think, he said. It will be “abysmal.” If no one is flying, certainly no one is renting cars, he said.

A lot of their income comes from rental equipment.

Hertz Global (HTZ) was upgraded to Equal-weight, Morgan Stanley said. $16 price target. Stock is down 45% from its 2007 highs, and management will likely announce more cost cuts at the upcoming conference call.

Hertz

uptrend

rental car

Upgraded by JP Morgan from Neutral to Overweight

"Hertz's "#1 Club Gold" program, which lets frequent customers skip the rental counter, is gold indeed: Customers rated all five aspects of the car pick-up process significantly higher than the industry average."