Equipment rental company United Rentals (NYSE: URI) reported Q1 CY2026 results exceeding the market’s revenue expectations, with sales up 7.2% year on year to $3.99 billion. The company expects the full year’s revenue to be around $17.15 billion, close to analysts’ estimates. Its non-GAAP profit of $9.71 per share was 8.6% above analysts’ consensus estimates.

Is now the time to buy United Rentals? Find out by accessing our full research report, it’s free.

Matthew Flannery, chief executive officer of United Rentals, said, “I am very pleased with our strong start to 2026, which again reflected our team’s commitment to being the partner of choice for our customers. We reported first-quarter records in EPS, adjusted EBITDA and revenue, supported by healthy growth and solid execution across both our general rentals and specialty businesses. We remain confident that our focus on improving our customers’ efficiency and productivity through our one-stop-shop approach, coupled with our industry-leading technology and world-class service, keeps us positioned to both outperform the market and generate strong shareholder returns.”

Company Overview

Owning the largest rental fleet in the world, United Rentals (NYSE: URI) provides equipment rental and related services to construction, industrial, and infrastructure industries.

Revenue Growth

A company’s long-term sales performance is one signal of its overall quality. Any business can have short-term success, but a top-tier one grows for years. Over the last five years, United Rentals grew its sales at an exceptional 14.1% compounded annual growth rate. Its growth beat the average industrials company and shows its offerings resonate with customers, a helpful starting point for our analysis.

Long-term growth is the most important, but within industrials, a half-decade historical view may miss new industry trends or demand cycles. United Rentals’s recent performance shows its demand has slowed significantly as its annualized revenue growth of 6.1% over the last two years was well below its five-year trend.

This quarter, United Rentals reported year-on-year revenue growth of 7.2%, and its $3.99 billion of revenue exceeded Wall Street’s estimates by 2.4%.

Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to grow 6% over the next 12 months, similar to its two-year rate. This projection is underwhelming and indicates its newer products and services will not accelerate its top-line performance yet. At least the company is tracking well in other measures of financial health.

ALSO WORTH WATCHING: Nvidia’s Quiet Partner. Nvidia’s chips cost a hundred grand. The connectors that make them work cost even more. One company makes them all.

Every AI server needs specialized infrastructure the chip companies don’t make. High-speed cables. Power connectors. Thermal sensors. This 90-year-old company built a monopoly on it. The AI boom just started. This stock is still flying under the radar. Claim The Stock Ticker Here for FREE.

Operating Margin

United Rentals’s operating margin has generally stayed the same over the last 12 months, averaging 25.9% over the last five years. This profitability was elite for an industrials business thanks to its efficient cost structure and economies of scale. This is seen in its fast historical revenue growth and healthy gross margin, which is why we look at all three data points together.

Analyzing the trend in its profitability, United Rentals’s operating margin might fluctuated slightly but has generally stayed the same over the last five years. We like to see margin expansion, but United Rentals’s performance still shows it’s one of the better Specialty Equipment Distributors companies as most peers saw their margins plummet.

This quarter, United Rentals generated an operating margin profit margin of 21.8%, in line with the same quarter last year. This indicates the company’s cost structure has recently been stable.

Earnings Per Share

Revenue trends explain a company’s historical growth, but the long-term change in earnings per share (EPS) points to the profitability of that growth – for example, a company could inflate its sales through excessive spending on advertising and promotions.

United Rentals’s EPS grew at 19.6% compounded annual growth rate over the last five years, higher than its 14.1% annualized revenue growth. This tells us the company became more profitable on a per-share basis as it expanded.

We can take a deeper look into United Rentals’s earnings quality to better understand the drivers of its performance. A five-year view shows that United Rentals has repurchased its stock, shrinking its share count by 13.3%. This tells us its EPS outperformed its revenue not because of increased operational efficiency but financial engineering, as buybacks boost per share earnings.

Like with revenue, we analyze EPS over a more recent period because it can provide insight into an emerging theme or development for the business.

For United Rentals, its two-year annual EPS growth of 1.1% was lower than its five-year trend. This wasn’t great, but at least the company was successful in other measures of financial health.

In Q1, United Rentals reported adjusted EPS of $9.71, up from $8.86 in the same quarter last year. This print beat analysts’ estimates by 8.6%. Over the next 12 months, Wall Street expects United Rentals’s full-year EPS of $42.97 to grow 10.1%.

Key Takeaways from United Rentals’s Q1 Results

We enjoyed seeing United Rentals beat analysts’ revenue expectations this quarter. We were also glad its EBITDA outperformed Wall Street’s estimates. Full-year revenue guidance was also raised. Overall, we think this was a very good quarter with some key metrics above expectations. The stock traded up 14% to $914.60 immediately after reporting.

Sure, United Rentals had a solid quarter, but if we look at the bigger picture, is this stock a buy? The latest quarter does matter, but not nearly as much as longer-term fundamentals and valuation, when deciding if the stock is a buy. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here (it’s free).