Transcript: United Rentals Q2 2026 Earnings Conference Call

United Rentals (NYSE: URI ) held its second-quarter earnings conference call on Thursday. Below is the complete transcript from the call. APIs provide real-time access to earnings call transcripts and financial data. Visit to learn more.

8 billion. The company raised its full-year 2026 guidance, expecting total revenue growth of almost 10% at the midpoint, driven by large projects and strong demand across both general rentals and specialty businesses. 76, marking a 22% year-over-year increase. United Rentals highlighted a strong performance in its specialty segment, with a 25% year-over-year increase in rental revenue, supported by 11 new branch openings.

8x and returned nearly $500 million to shareholders through share buybacks and dividends during the quarter. 9 billion spent year-to-date to support growing customer demand, and revised CapEx guidance upwards due to historically high time utilization rates. The company aims to maintain flat margins year-over-year, despite ancillary and delivery cost pressures, by leveraging operational efficiencies and disciplined pricing strategies. United Rentals sees continued growth in various end markets, including infrastructure, power, and industrial, with a significant pipeline of large projects extending into 2027.

Full Transcript OPERATOR Good morning everyone and welcome to the United Rentals Investor Conference Call. Please be advised that this call is being recorded. Before we begin, please note that the Company's press release, comments made on today's call and responses to your questions contain forward-looking statements. The Company's business and operations are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond its control and consequently actual results may differ materially from those projected.

A summary of these uncertainties is included in the safe harbor statement contained in the Company's press release. For a more complete description of these and other possible risks, please refer to the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2025, as well as the subsequent filings with the SEC. You can access these filings on the Company's website at Please note that United Rentals has no obligation and makes no commitment to update or publicly release any revisions to forward-looking statements in order to reflect new information or subsequent events, circumstances or changes in expectations.

You should also note that the Company's press release and today's call include references to non-GAAP terms such as free cash flow, adjusted EPS, EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA. Please refer to the back of the Company's recent investor presentation to see the reconciliation from each non-GAAP financial measure to the most comparable GAAP financial measure. Speaking today for United Rentals is Matt Flannery, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Ted Grace, Chief Financial Officer. I will now turn the call over to Mr.

Flannery. Please go ahead, sir. Matt Flannery, President & CEO Thank you, operator, and good morning everyone. Thanks for joining our call.

As evidenced in our second quarter results, 2026 is on track to be a great year for Team United as we continue to execute our strategy and prove ourselves as a partner of choice for our customers. Our growth accelerated in the quarter, customers remain optimistic, particularly around large projects, and we continue to exhibit strong cost discipline. Our one-stop-shop value proposition, coupled with our technology, service levels and an unwavering focus on safety and customer productivity, continue to differentiate us in the industry.

Coming into the year, we set the bar high for the team and our results are a testament to both their collective efforts and the strategy we've been laser focused on for the better part of 20 years. As we enter the second half of the year, I'm pleased to raise guidance as we provide our customers a best-in-class partnership while generating strong shareholder returns. So let's get into the details of our second quarter results and our updated full-year guidance, and then Ted will get into more details around the numbers before we open up the call to Q&A. 4 billion.

8 billion. Both were quarterly records. 4% contributed to OER growth of 9%. 6%.

76, up 22% year over year and another quarterly record. Now let's discuss customer activity. We continue to see growth across both our Gen Rent and Specialty businesses. Specialty saw exceptional rental revenue growth of 25% year over year, including 11 cold starts, and growth across all lines of business.

By vertical, the trends of the first quarter carried into the second. Namely, construction posted strong growth led by non-residential and infrastructure, and on the industrial side, power continues to post double-digit growth while metals and minerals also grew at a healthy rate. As you know, critical to our strategy is diversified exposure across end markets. In the quarter we saw projects kick off in a variety of end markets including hospitals, airports and LNG terminals, to name a few, while data centers continue to be a source of growth.

Now turning to the used market, we sold $624 million of OEC at a 53% recovery rate. W