Why United Rentals (URI) Shares Are Trading Lower Today

What Happened?

Shares of equipment rental company United Rentals (NYSE:URI) fell 7.3% in the afternoon session after the company reported mixed third-quarter 2025 financial results, where an earnings miss overshadowed a revenue beat and slightly raised guidance. 

The company posted adjusted earnings per share of $11.70, which fell short of analyst expectations of $12.30. This earnings miss appeared to be the primary driver for the stock's decline. While United Rentals’s total revenue of $4.23 billion surpassed forecasts and grew 5.9% from the previous year, investors seemed more concerned with the lower profitability. Adding to these concerns, the company's gross profit margin declined by 2.3 percentage points year over year. Even though United Rentals slightly lifted its full-year revenue outlook, the market's negative reaction suggested the earnings shortfall and margin pressure were the more significant news for investors.

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What Is The Market Telling Us

United Rentals’s shares are somewhat volatile and have had 11 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.

The previous big move we wrote about was 10 days ago when the stock gained 2.9% on the news that a softened tone from President Donald Trump on U.S.-China relations boosted investor sentiment. The positive shift followed a weekend post on Truth Social where Trump stated, "Don't worry about China, it will all be fine!" and expressed a desire to help rather than hurt the country's economy. This statement provided significant relief to markets that had ended the prior week with steep losses. In response, the Nasdaq Composite jumped 2.2%, the S&P 500 gained 1.6%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 1.3% higher, as investors' fears of escalating trade tensions subsided.

United Rentals is up 32.4% since the beginning of the year, but at $913.60 per share, it is still trading 10.4% below its 52-week high of $1,020 from October 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of United Rentals’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $4,853.

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