Top Performer for Tues: Hertz (HTZ)

Earnings estimates for Hertz Global Holdings' (HTZ - Snapshot Report) current year have advanced approximately 7.7% in the past 24 hours. Yesterday, the car rental giant boosted its 2009 outlook.

Today, shares of this Zacks #1 Rank Top Performer are up more than 5%. Also, volume is sharply higher Tuesday at more than 6.7 million shares, compared to the daily average of 3.6 million.

Technically, HTZ is part of the Business Services industry. There are 5 other companies from this space on today's 226-stock Zacks #1 Rank List: Cardtronics, Inc. (CATM - Snapshot Report), Diamond Management & Technology Consultants, Inc. (DTPI - Snapshot Report), Dolan Media Company (DM - Snapshot Report), RCM Technologies, Inc. (RCMT) and TrueBlue, Inc. (TBI - Snapshot Report). (However, since Business Services is such a vast space, none of these other companies are in the car rental business like Hertz.)

2009 Outlook Raised

On Monday, Hertz raised its EPS guidance for 2009 to between 21 cents and 23 cents, compared of the prior guidance at 12 cents to 15 cents. The company also boosted its revenue guidance to between $7 billion and $7.1 billion, instead of $6.7 billion to $7 billion.

The raised guidance was attributed to the third-quarter performance in its worldwide car rental business (adjusted pre-tax income up nearly 55%), along with an improving macro outlook for the fourth quarter.

Third Quarter Report on Deck

Hertz is scheduled to report its third-quarter this Thursday, Oct 29. At the moment, four covering analysts have contributed to a Zacks Consensus Estimate of 22 cents for the quarter.

(In its second quarter, HTZ earned 12 cents per share, which matched the Zacks Consensus Estimate.)

There are 5 covering analysts for this year, and 1 of them has revised higher in the past 7 days. As a result, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for this year has advanced 7.7% to 14 cents. However, given the raised outlook and upcoming third-quarter report, this outlook could move higher in the coming days.

Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for next year is at 44 cents per share, which hasn't moved in the past month but remains more than 12% better than the level from 2 months ago. The guidance also suggests year-over-year profit growth of more than 210%.