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Today's Exclusive Story Revisiting Hertz's Amazon Partnership 5 Months Later: The Good, the Bad, the RiskAuthor: Jordan Chussler. Date Posted: 2/3/2026. 
Article Highlights - After a net income loss of $2.8 billion in 2024, Hertz hoped that a strategic partnership with Amazon could help offset its mounting depreciation costs.
- According to the company’s management, the aim was to see $2,000 or more in incremental margin benefit per vehicle sold versus wholesale channels.
- That has yet to materialize on Hertz’s books, with free cash flow contracting 442% in Q3 2025 and the stock having lost 10% since the deal was signed.
It has been a rough ride for shareholders of Hertz Global Holdings (NASDAQ: HTZ). Over the past five years, shares have fallen more than 79%, including a nearly 43% decline since the stock's one-year high on April 24, 2025. Last summer, the company—looking for a spark—signed a strategic partnership with Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) intended to move some of its aging and less popular inventory. Wall Street heavyweights are sounding the alarm. Morgan Stanley says a 15 percent decline is possible. Goldman Sachs warns losses could hit 20 percent. Jamie Dimon confesses he's far more worried than others about a market crash. Mark Mobius is calling for a 30 to 40 percent decline in AI stocks. But all of this would only be the start of a much bigger financial reckoning. Four unstoppable market forces are barreling toward each other. The last time these forces converged was over 50 years ago, when popular stocks crashed 80 to 90 percent and the economy experienced a lost decade. See the latest research and how to sidestep the carnage. The deal with Amazon Autos aims to sell Hertz's used cars by giving "customers a faster, more convenient way to buy their [pre-owned] car online," providing access to thousands of listings eligible for online purchase and pick-up services at 45 locations nationwide. Hertz also offers flexible financing options, a 12-month/12,000-mile limited powertrain warranty, 24-hour roadside assistance and a 7-day/250-mile buyback guarantee. The partnership was designed in part to help offset a multibillion-dollar net loss in 2024 that Hertz attributed to an aggressive pivot toward an EV-focused fleet and the subsequent depreciation of those vehicles amid price cuts from Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA). Here is how the stock has performed in the five months since signing that deal with Amazon. Hertz's Strategic Partnership With Amazon Aimed to Right the Ship After the deal was announced on Aug. 20, 2025, outlets like CNBC called it a threat to auto dealers, and HTZ shares initially surged on the news. But despite the success of online used-car retailers such as Carvana (NYSE: CVNA), Hertz's partnership with Amazon depends on convincing customers to buy what is often the second-most expensive asset in a household on the same platform where they purchase everyday items. During the company's Q3 2025 earnings call, CEO Gil West noted that "by scaling our direct-to-consumer and e-commerce channels, we're positioned to capture $2,000 or more incremental margin benefit per vehicle versus wholesale channels." However, total sales figures for vehicles sold exclusively through Amazon Autos are not publicly disclosed, so investors must look to Hertz's income statements and balance sheet for clues about the partnership's impact. Hertz's Financials Are Not Inspiring Hope One indicator is the company's accumulated depreciation, which increased each quarter from Q3 2024 to Q3 2025, rising from $308 million to $1.33 billion — nearly a 332% increase. Growing accumulated depreciation generally signals aging assets that are losing value on the books. Over the same period, Hertz's property, plant and equipment (PP&E) fell by more than 4% while long-term debt increased by nearly 7%, and revenue growth contracted every quarter. Perhaps most concerning, free cash flow plunged roughly 442% in Q3 2025. Since announcing the partnership with Amazon, HTZ shares are down nearly 10% while AMZN shares are up almost 9%. Looking further back, Hertz reported annual EPS of $1.39 per share in 2023 but finished 2024 with a loss per share of $9.34. Those struggles carried into 2025, with EPS losses of $1.44 and $0.95 in Q1 and Q2, before a surprise Q3 earnings beat of $0.59. That one-quarter improvement has done little to restore confidence among shareholders or analysts as the rental car and transportation-solutions company tries to convince investors the turnaround is sustainable. Analysts' Tale of 2 Companies Amazon, which reports full-year and Q4 2025 earnings on Thursday, Feb. 5, remains in analysts' favor; the same cannot be said for Hertz. AMZN has a consensus Moderate Buy rating, with 55 of 59 analysts assigning a Buy and an average 12-month price target that implies nearly 22% upside. By contrast, HTZ has a consensus Reduce rating, with no analysts giving it a Buy. The average 12-month price target still implies more than 8% potential upside, but that offers cold comfort to shareholders who have endured heavy losses. Adding to the pressure, short interest stands at a substantial 18.41%, representing more than 51 million of the roughly 311.6 million shares outstanding. Hertz scores higher than just 23% of companies evaluated by MarketBeat and ranks 109th out of 130 stocks in the transportation sector. TradeSmith gives the company a middling financial health score that places HTZ in the Yellow Zone, where it has spent most of the past six months. Hertz won't report full-year and Q4 2025 results until Feb. 12, but its net income already contracted from $616 million in 2023 to a loss of $2.8 billion in 2024 — a decline of roughly 565%. Bottom line: the Amazon partnership may help Hertz sell more cars and improve margins on a per-vehicle basis, but so far it hasn't meaningfully moved the company's broader financial trajectory. Investors will be watching the upcoming earnings report and subsequent quarters to see whether the strategy can produce sustained improvement.
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