Hertz Books $1.21 Billion Loss Last Quarter

Park Ridge, N.J. -- Hertz Global Holdings (HTZ) reported a $1.21 billion fourth-quarter loss late Monday as its results suffered from a hefty write-down, increased restructuring costs and a drop in rental car demand and pricing.

Hertz shares tumbled 37 cents, or 10.6%, to $3.13 in afternoon trading. The stock has traded between $1.55 and $14.70 during the past 52 weeks.

For the quarter ended Dec. 31, Hertz's loss totaled $3.76 per share, compared with a profit of $80.7 million, or 25 cents per share, in the prior year.

Excluding a $985.2 million impairment charge and other one-time items, Hertz reported an adjusted loss of $73 million, or 22 cents per share, compared with earnings of $93.9 million, or 29 cents per share, a year ago.

Quarterly revenue dropped 16% to $1.79 billion, from $2.14 billion.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, who generally exclude one-time items, forecast a narrower loss of 5 per share on revenue of $1.95 billion.

"Hertz experienced unprecedented volume, pricing and residual value contraction across all of its businesses in the fourth quarter of 2008," said Chairman and Chief Executive Mark Frissora in a statement. "Although there was an adjusted pretax loss for the quarter, we made significant progress towards achieving our objective of right-sizing the business to economic conditions."

Hertz booked $94.3 million in restructuring and related charges in the fourth quarter after cutting jobs and closing some rental locations.

Worldwide car rental revenue dropped 15% to $1.4 billion and revenue from worldwide equipment rental tumbled 21% to $370.7 million.