On Thursday, August 6, 2026, Hertz Global Holdings gave investors something they have not had much of lately: a reason to relax. The rental car company reported an adjusted loss of 11 cents per share.
An adjusted loss is a way of measuring how the company did after setting aside one-time costs and gains. Wall Street analysts were bracing for a 24-cent loss, according to Bloomberg.
Hertz beat that forecast, and the relief showed up fast. Hertz has been under heavy pressure for months.
High depreciation costs, financial volatility, and a falling stock price made this report an important moment for the company. Adjusted corporate EBITDA came in at $81 million. EBITDA is a measure of operating performance that strips out interest, taxes, and the accounting costs of assets wearing out. Think of it as a rough scoreboard for how the core business is doing.
Investors pushed the stock up 11% in premarket trading in New York. That bounce matters, but it comes after a brutal stretch for the company's stock.
Before the report, Hertz shares had lost 70% since the start of the year, based on Wednesday's close. Thursday's pop was a step back from the edge, not a full recovery.
Before Thursday, Hertz had already signaled that the quarter would be tough. In June it turned to the capital markets, issuing debt and offering $100 million in shares intended for short selling. Those steps added cash, but they also reflected how much pressure the soft used-car market was putting on the business.
Hertz is still dealing with a big problem: its cars are losing value faster than the company expected. The company warned in a regulatory filing that the used-vehicle market is weak, and that weakness is pushing costs up.
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Depreciation per vehicle per month rose 18% in the second quarter. Depreciation is the cost of a car losing value as it ages, and for a rental company it is one of the largest bills on the income statement.
Rental revenue per day rose 9% over the same stretch. That sounds like a win, but it is not keeping pace with the faster drop in car values.
The gap between those two numbers is a big reason Hertz is still losing money.
Hertz also trimmed its forecast, now projecting adjusted EBITDA of at most $80 million. That lands at the lower end of the expectations the company cited in June.
The forecast is more evidence that the used-car market is the main thing standing between Hertz and a real turnaround. The company beat this quarter's low bar, but it is not pretending the road ahead is smooth.
For now, Hertz is in a familiar spot for a turnaround story: it is doing better, but it is not doing well. Turnarounds are rarely straight lines, and Hertz's next step depends on whether used-car prices cooperate.
For anyone watching Hertz as a possible comeback story, this quarter is a checkpoint, not a finish line. The company delivered better numbers than Wall Street expected, and that gives it some breathing room.
But it still lost money, and the used-car market is still working against it. The number to keep in mind is depreciation per vehicle per month.
If car values stop falling so quickly, Hertz's biggest cost problem eases. If they keep falling, even good quarters will only help so much.
The value of the cars is the real story. That single number will decide whether this is a real recovery or just a brief bounce.
For your portfolio, the useful reminder is that a narrower loss is not the same as a real recovery. Hertz is moving in the right direction, and the question is how much longer the climb takes.
One good quarter will not erase a year like the one Hertz just had. But it is the kind of report that keeps a turnaround alive.
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