H&E Equipment Services (HEES) Competitors

H&E Equipment Services (NASDAQ:HEES) and Herc (NYSE:HRI) are both mid-cap industrial products companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their media sentiment, dividends, community ranking, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of HEES or HRI?

84.1% of H&E Equipment Services shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 93.1% of Herc shares are held by institutional investors. 12.5% of H&E Equipment Services shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 1.8% of Herc shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Which has preferable earnings & valuation, HEES or HRI?

Herc has higher revenue and earnings than H&E Equipment Services. H&E Equipment Services is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Herc, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
H&E Equipment Services	$1.47B	1.38	$169.29M	$3.94	14.03
Herc	$3.28B	1.85	$347M	$12.23	17.46

Does the media refer more to HEES or HRI?

In the previous week, H&E Equipment Services had 1 more articles in the media than Herc. MarketBeat recorded 5 mentions for H&E Equipment Services and 4 mentions for Herc. Herc's average media sentiment score of 1.66 beat H&E Equipment Services' score of 0.77 indicating that Herc is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
H&E Equipment Services	1 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Herc	4 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	0 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Very Positive

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in HEES or HRI?

Herc received 5 more outperform votes than H&E Equipment Services when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 58.75% of users gave Herc an outperform vote while only 58.04% of users gave H&E Equipment Services an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
H&E Equipment Services	Outperform Votes 267 58.04%	Underperform Votes 193 41.96%
Herc	Outperform Votes 272 58.75%	Underperform Votes 191 41.25%

Is HEES or HRI more profitable?

Herc has a net margin of 10.09% compared to H&E Equipment Services' net margin of 9.47%. Herc's return on equity of 26.35% beat H&E Equipment Services' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
H&E Equipment Services	9.47%	25.46%	5.16%
Herc	10.09%	26.35%	4.76%

Do analysts rate HEES or HRI?

H&E Equipment Services presently has a consensus price target of $61.25, indicating a potential upside of 10.82%. Herc has a consensus price target of $212.25, indicating a potential downside of 0.60%. Given H&E Equipment Services' stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities analysts plainly believe H&E Equipment Services is more favorable than Herc.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
H&E Equipment Services	0 Sell rating(s)	2 Hold rating(s)	4 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.67
Herc	0 Sell rating(s)	3 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.40

Is HEES or HRI a better dividend stock?

H&E Equipment Services pays an annual dividend of $1.10 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. Herc pays an annual dividend of $2.66 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.2%. H&E Equipment Services pays out 27.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Herc pays out 21.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years.

Which has more risk and volatility, HEES or HRI?

H&E Equipment Services has a beta of 1.82, meaning that its share price is 82% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Herc has a beta of 2.02, meaning that its share price is 102% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Herc beats H&E Equipment Services on 13 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.