Reviewing Herc (NYSE:HRI) & Gold.com (NYSE:GOLD)

Herc (NYSE:HRI) and Gold.com (NYSE:GOLD) are both industrials companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, dividends, earnings, profitability, risk and valuation.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

93.1% of Herc shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 62.9% of Gold.com shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.2% of Herc shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 23.1% of Gold.com shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings for Herc and Gold.com, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Herc	0	3	6	0	2.67
Gold.com	0	2	4	0	2.67

Herc currently has a consensus price target of $184.43, indicating a potential upside of 31.70%. Gold.com has a consensus price target of $58.00, indicating a potential upside of 22.68%. Given Herc’s higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Herc is more favorable than Gold.com.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Herc and Gold.com”s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Herc	$4.86 billion	0.96	$1.00 million	$1.47	95.27
Gold.com	$25.51 billion	0.05	$82.34 million	$2.92	16.19

Gold.com has higher revenue and earnings than Herc. Gold.com is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Herc, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Dividends

Herc pays an annual dividend of $2.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.0%. Gold.com pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. Herc pays out 190.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Gold.com pays out 27.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Herc has increased its dividend for 2 consecutive years. Herc is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Profitability

This table compares Herc and Gold.com’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Herc	1.01%	10.33%	1.44%
Gold.com	0.32%	17.22%	3.81%

Risk & Volatility

Herc has a beta of 1.86, suggesting that its stock price is 86% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Gold.com has a beta of 0.56, suggesting that its stock price is 44% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Herc beats Gold.com on 9 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Herc

Herc Holdings Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as an equipment rental supplier. It rents aerial, earthmoving, material handling, trucks and trailers, air compressors, compaction, and lighting equipment, as well as generators, and safety supplies and expendables; and provides ProSolutions, an industry specific solution based services, such as pumping solutions, power generation, climate control, remediation and restoration, and studio and production equipment. The company also sells used equipment and contractor supplies, such as construction consumables, tools, small equipment, and safety supplies; provides repair, maintenance, equipment management, and safety training services, as well as offers ancillary services, such as equipment transport, rental protection, cleaning, refueling, and labor. It serves non-residential and residential construction, specialty trade, restoration, remediation and environment, and facility maintenance contractors; industrial manufacturing industries, including automotive and aerospace, power, metals and mining, agriculture, pulp, paper and wood, food and beverage, and refineries and petrochemical industries; infrastructure and government sectors; and commercial and retail service, hospitality, healthcare, recreation, entertainment production, and special event management customers through its sales team, industry catalogs, as well as through participation and sponsorship of industry events, trade shows, and Internet. As of December 31, 2017, it operated approximately 275 locations in the United States, Canada, China, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. Herc Holdings Inc. is based in Bonita Springs, Florida.

About Gold.com

Gold.com, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a precious metals company. It operates through three segments: Wholesale Sales & Ancillary Services, Direct-to-Consumer, and Secured Lending. The Wholesale Sales & Ancillary Services segment sells gold, silver, platinum, and palladium in the form of bars, plates, powders, wafers, grains, ingots, and coins. This segment also offers complementary services, such as receiving, handling, inventorying, processing, packing, and shipping of precious metals and custom coins on a secure basis; and designs and produces minted silver products. The Direct-to-Consumer segment provides access to gold, silver, copper, platinum, and palladium products primarily through its websites; rarities and numismatic collections; and numismatic and bullion products. It operates various websites targeting specific niches within the precious metals retail market. This segment also operates as a direct retailer of precious metals to the investor community and markets its precious metal products on television, radio, and the internet, as well as through customer service outreach. The Secured Lending segment originates and acquires commercial loans secured by bullion, numismatic coins, and graded sports cards. The company serves customers, including financial institutions, bullion retailers, industrial manufacturers and fabricators, sovereign mints, refiners, coin and metal dealers, investors, collectors, and e-commerce and other retail customers. It operates in the United States, Europe, Canada, Asia Pacific, Africa, Australia, and South America. The company was formerly known as A-Mark Precious Metals, Inc. and changed its name to Gold.com, Inc. in December 2025. The company was founded in 1965 and is headquartered in Costa Mesa, California.