** Shares of equipment rental firm United Rentals URI.N rise ~7% to $900.31 in afternoon trading

** UBS upgrades stock to "buy" from "neutral", maintains PT at $1,025

** Forecasts a growth in the range of about 4% to 5.5% in U.S. non-residential construction spending in 2026 to 2027, vs a ~1% decline in 2025, driven by large projects in life sciences, infrastructure, data centers and power

** Believes some improvement in smaller projects or local markets will help tighten industry supply-demand, and support better rental rate growth and fleet productivity and, thereby, rental margins

** 17 of 23 brokerages rate stock "buy" or higher, 5 "hold" and 1 "sell" or lower; median PT is $1,000 — data compiled by LSEG

** URI stock rose ~15% in 2025

(Reporting by Koyena Das in Bengaluru)

((koyena.das@thomsonreuters.com))