What Happened?

Shares of global car rental company Hertz (NASDAQ:HTZ) jumped 57.9% in the pre-market session after reports revealed that Bill Ackman's Pershing Square had an even bigger stake in the company, a day after the hedge fund acquired $46.5m of the company's stock. Notably, CNBC reported that Pershing Square's total position was about 19.8%, including shares and swaps, making it the company's second-largest shareholder.

The shares closed the day at $8.20, up 44.1% from previous close.

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What The Market Is Telling Us

Hertz’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 83 moves greater than 5% over the last year. But moves this big are rare even for Hertz and indicate this news significantly impacted the market’s perception of the business.

The previous big move we wrote about was 1 day ago when the stock gained 28.6% on the news that Pershing Square Holdings, led by activist investor Bill Ackman, disclosed a $46.5 million stake in the company. This translated to more than 12.7 million shares. This development is noteworthy given that activist investors often bring about significant changes in targeted companies, focusing on improving asset monetization, expense efficiency, and stock buybacks.

Hertz is up 118% since the beginning of the year, and at $8.12 per share, has set a new 52-week high. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Hertz’s shares at the IPO in June 2021 would now be looking at an investment worth $300.85.

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