Shares of vehicle rental companies Avis (CAR) and Hertz (HTZ) advanced Monday after Avis finance chief David Wyshner spoke at an industry conference, revealing that the company is seeing healthy pricing and demand trends in the Americas.

AVIS SEES HEALTHY TRENDS: Speaking Monday at the Goldman Sachs Lodging, Gaming, Restaurant and Leisure Conference, Avis CFO David Wyshner commented on recent trends in the vehicle rental market, saying: "We're encouraged by recent trends in our business. Pricing in the Americas has rebounded just as we had hoped, with our year-over-year pricing comps improving from February to March, March to April, April to May, and we expect from May to June. In fact, while our April pricing was still down year-over-year, our May pricing in the Americas was up a bit year-over-year. And demand this quarter has been in line with our expectations. At this point, we have booked less than 20% of our summer rental days, as is typical. While reservations we've taken are solid from a pricing and volume perspective, there are not enough precincts reporting for us to refine our view.

Our fleet is tight, relative to demand, and we continue to expect our fleet utilization to be up year-over-year. Fleet residual values appear to have stabilized, albeit at a level that's a bit below where we had anticipated at the start of the year. We crossed the halfway point in our planned 2016 U.S. risk-car sales in mid-May, and we have not been realizing any significant gains or losses on sale. So, to recap, second-quarter pricing trends in the Americas have been quite good. Demand is fine. Our fleet feels a bit tight. The used car market is stable. And it's still too early for us to refine our view on the summer."

PRICE ACTION: Shares of Avis are up 7% to $32.51 in late session trading, while Hertz is up 6.5% to $10.70 per share.