Revenue is up everywhere. That is the least interesting thing in this quarter’s rental numbers.
Underneath it, the four largest publicly reporting U.S. rental businesses are running two different strategies with two very different profit profiles, and the divergence tells you more about where fleet is going than the top line does.
The numbers
EquipmentShare booked $1.5 billion of total revenue, up 26 percent, with equipment rental and services up 39 percent to $908 million and equipment sales roughly flat at $483 million. Net profit was $19 million. It opened 23 operational branches in the quarter, 20 full-service rental shops and three building-material locations, and guides to $5.2 to $5.7 billion for the full year.
Herc Rentals grew total revenue 20 percent to $1.2 billion, with rental revenue up 23 percent to $1.1 billion, and swung to a $19 million net profit from a $35 million net loss a year earlier. It maintained full-year rental guidance of $4.275 to $4.4 billion.
Sunbelt Rentals reported consolidated revenue of $2.8 billion for the quarter, up 8.9 percent, with rental revenue up 8 percent to $2.5 billion. Quarterly net income fell 31.3 percent to $226 million from $329 million. Full fiscal 2026 revenue was $11.2 billion, up 3.4 percent, with net income down 14.7 percent to $1.3 billion. FY2027 rental growth guidance is 5 to 8 percent.
United Rentals posted $4.4 billion of total revenue, up 11.8 percent, with rental revenue up 8.7 percent to $3.9 billion and gross profit up 13 percent to $1.7 billion.
Read the periods before you build the table
These are company-reported earnings, which is the strongest tier of number available, but they are not comparable as printed. United Rentals, Herc and EquipmentShare are reporting a second quarter. Sunbelt is reporting its fourth quarter and full fiscal year. Putting all four in one growth column without saying so produces a chart that means nothing.
Herc’s growth is also inorganic. The 23 percent rental increase reflects a larger fleet following the H&E acquisition, and Herc attributed part of it to an increase in mega construction projects. That is not the same thing as organic rate and utilization growth at the others, and the loss-to-profit swing is flattered by an unusually weak comparison quarter.
What the branch count is telling you
Twenty-three branches in ninety days is the most operationally revealing figure in the set. Rental businesses do not open branches on optimism; they open them where fleet is already being dragged. Pair that with Herc’s mega-project comment and the picture is capacity repositioning toward large industrial, data center and heavy civil work, and away from the general commercial market that carried the sector through the last cycle.
Sunbelt’s margin compression is the counterweight. Growing revenue 8.9 percent while net income falls 31.3 percent means the growth is being bought. For contractors, the practical read is that rates on general fleet are unlikely to soften much even where demand is flat, because the fleet is being repositioned rather than retired. Anyone pricing a long industrial job like the New St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver should assume rental rate escalation holds through 2027 rather than reverting.