Shortly after we inaugurated RER Reports as a faxed newsletter in the mid-’90s, we included what we called Stock Watch — a weekly look at the stock prices of publicly traded rental companies and construction equipment manufacturers that marketed to rental companies. In those days, the Internet was relatively new and most people didn’t have Internet access on their computers sitting on their desks (much less on their PDAs, watches and cellular phones!). At that time, publicly traded rental companies were new to the industry as the first wave of consolidation and “roll-ups” hit.
A few years later with the proliferation of e-mail, we discontinued the faxed version of RER Reports and went electronic. Most people had ready access to the Internet and we figured they wouldn’t need us to update them on stocks since they could get updates instantly whenever they wanted. However, over the past year or two, we’ve had a number of requests to re-inaugurate the stock watch from readers who said they liked being able to get a quick rundown of stocks relevant to the rental industry without having to take the time to look up everybody’s stock price. So with this issue of RER Reports, scroll down to the “Wall Street Beat” section and read “The Stock Block.”
If you like it — or don’t like it — please contact me at mroth@rermag.com or our managing editor Brandey Smith, who put The Stock Block together, at bsmith@rermag.com. If we left out a company we should include, let us know, or if there is other information that might enhance the section, let us know that as well.
Michael Roth
