MW Is Hertz a meme stock again? Shares soar 20% on Uber partnership.
By William Gavin
The car-rental firm's stock rally was also propelling shares of rival Avis higher
Hertz said it will support Uber Technologies' efforts to launch robotaxi services in California.
Hertz Global Holdings shares were booming Thursday after the company, once a favorite with the meme-stock crowd, announced a new partnership to support a major player's robotaxi efforts.
Hertz (HTZ) said its affiliate Oro Mobility will provide day-to-day robotaxi vehicle management for Uber Technologies (UBER), beginning in California's San Francisco Bay Area. That's where Uber's partners Lucid Group $(LCID)$ and Nuro have been testing their custom robotaxis, with services expected to launch later this year.
For Uber, that solves a key maintenance problem that all robotaxi operators face. Although the vehicles may be capable of driving themselves, they can't clean their own interiors, plug in a charging cable or repair hardware.
Read more: Uber's stock powers higher as Nvidia robotaxi deal helps avert 'doomsday' scenario
Hertz said it will also offer Oro's fleet on Uber's ride-hailing platform in Los Angeles, Atlanta and parts of New Jersey. That will help Uber meet higher demand while showing Hertz's ability to deliver solutions at scale, the companies said in a statement.
"Through this work, we're deepening our capabilities across diverse mobility use cases, and positioning Hertz to play a significant role as the industry evolves," Hertz CEO Gil West said in a statement.
The partnership sent Hertz shares soaring 20.2% in recent midday trading, to put them on track for their biggest one-day gain since they shot up 36.2% on Nov. 4. That rally harkens back to a time when the stock saw outsize gains because of its meme-stock status. Rival Avis Budget Group's shares $(CAR)$ - which have also held meme status - also got a boost, climbing 6.3% Thursday and adding to their recent volatility.
Both companies are the subject of major interest from short sellers, or traders who aim to make a profit from stocks by betting on their declining value. Short interest in Hertz stands at nearly 20% of float, while short interest accounts for 22.4% of Avis's float, according to FactSet data. In comparison, short interest in shares of Apple $(AAPL)$, which reports results after Thursday's close, was 0.9%.
Hertz filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2020 before emerging in June 2021. In January, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Hertz's challenge of a ruling that it was still on the hook for $270 million in interest payments it owes to bondholders paid off during its bankruptcy.
Hertz delivered full-year revenue above expectations in 2025, although it also reported a worse loss per share than Wall Street was looking for, according to FactSet. The car-rental firm reports first-quarter earnings on May 7.
Meanwhile, Avis stock traded at as high as $847.70 on April 22, but shares are now worth around $194 as of Thursday. In a bold move, Avis executives directly addressed the recent spike in volatility on a call with investors this week, singling out a single seller.
Avis pointed to Pentwater Capital Management, a Florida-based hedge fund, which they said has an economic interest in Avis of 51% through stock and cash-settled swaps as of March. A month earlier, Pentwater's economic interest stood at just 39%, Avis said.
"It seems the only insider active during this period of excess volatility was Pentwater Capital," Avis CEO Brian Choi told investors on Wednesday.
Choi added that Avis's securities lawyers were reviewing Pentwater's sales. He said that Pentwater has admitted that its sales of Avis shares were "at least in part" a violation of U.S. short-swing profit rules.
So far in 2026, Hertz shares have soared 31% and Avis shares have climbed 51%, while the S&P 500 SPX has gained 4.7%.
-William Gavin
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 30, 2026 12:59 ET (16:59 GMT)
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