Hertz 4th-quarter beats Street on strong demand

(Reuters) - Car rental company Hertz Global Holdings Inc (HTZ.N) posted better-than-expected quarterly results on improving U.S. travel demand and forecast double-digit volume growth in the U.S. car rental business for the first quarter.

Hertz, which stopped pursuing smaller rival Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group (DTG.N) last year, expects 2012 adjusted earnings of $1.16 to $1.26 a share, on revenue of $8.85 billion to $8.95 billion.

Analysts were expecting earnings $1.24 a share, on revenue of $8.90 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

October-December net income was $47.1 million, or 11 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $28.1 million, or 7 cents a share, a year ago.

Excluding items, the company earned 24 cents a share.

Revenue rose 10 percent to $2.01 billion.

Analysts were expecting earnings of 21 cents a share on revenue of $1.99 billion.

Shares of the Park Ridge, New Jersey-based company were trading up 4 percent at $13.85 on Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Megha Mandavia in Bangalore; Editing by Unnikrishnan Nair)