Oct 28

Written by:
10/28/2008 12:10 PM 

Avis Budget (NYSE:CAR) and Rental Agencies All Fall

Travel volume has dropped along with consumer spending and consumer sentiment over the past several months. And Avis Budget Group suffered from the decline in travel losing $1 billion dollars and having to cut 700 jobs in the most recent quarter preliminarily reported last night.

Revised Outlook

    The company now expects to see income of $87 million on revenue of $1.7 billion for their third quarter without a $1.1 billion write-down of goodwill and other intangibles. Analysts are currently looking for 61 cents of income per share on $1.74 billion of revenue. The stock has declined mid-day to $1.28 a share representing an 8.5% drop.

Others in the Industry Struggle

    The majority of the Rental and Leasing industry fell in trading today including Ryder Systems (NYSE:R), down 5.5%, Hertz Global (NYSE:HTZ), down 7.15%, and Rent-a-Center, down 29.5%. Rent-a-Center also released their earnings this week at $708 million in revenue and 44 cents a share of income. Analysts were looking for $700 million revenue and 48 cents of income.

The Trade

    If there is a move in the stock to the upside, it would be a good opportunity to short the stock with a small percentage of your portfolio for a short-term trade.