California State Teachers Retirement System Raises Holdings in Fastenal Company $FAST

California State Teachers Retirement System increased its stake in shares of Fastenal Company (NASDAQ:FAST - Free Report) by 4,689.6% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 84,371,948 shares of the company's stock after acquiring an additional 82,610,391 shares during the period. California State Teachers Retirement System owned about 7.35% of Fastenal worth $4,052,385,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Wedmont Private Capital grew its stake in shares of Fastenal by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 35,658 shares of the company's stock worth $1,658,000 after purchasing an additional 516 shares during the period. Kintra Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of Fastenal by 22.7% in the 2nd quarter. Kintra Wealth LLC now owns 5,376 shares of the company's stock valued at $276,000 after purchasing an additional 993 shares during the period. Saudi Central Bank lifted its stake in shares of Fastenal by 89.7% in the 2nd quarter. Saudi Central Bank now owns 80,382 shares of the company's stock valued at $3,861,000 after purchasing an additional 38,007 shares during the period. Old Mission Investment Co LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fastenal in the 2nd quarter valued at $355,000. Finally, SVRN Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in Fastenal during the second quarter worth $385,000. 81.38% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently commented on FAST shares. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Fastenal from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "buy (b)" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 26th. Rothschild & Co Redburn set a $55.00 price objective on shares of Fastenal and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, July 13th. Wolfe Research reissued an "underperform" rating and set a $47.00 target price on shares of Fastenal in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Robert W. Baird set a $54.00 target price on Fastenal in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Fastenal from $48.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $49.17.

Fastenal Stock Performance

NASDAQ:FAST opened at $49.01 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 2.21 and a current ratio of 4.18. The stock has a market capitalization of $56.24 billion, a PE ratio of 41.53, a P/E/G ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 0.72. Fastenal Company has a fifty-two week low of $38.97 and a fifty-two week high of $52.92. The company has a fifty day moving average of $48.81 and a two-hundred day moving average of $46.68.

Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 14th. The company reported $0.33 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.33. The business had revenue of $2.39 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.34 billion. Fastenal had a return on equity of 34.03% and a net margin of 15.45%.The business's quarterly revenue was up 14.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.29 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that Fastenal Company will post 1.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fastenal Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 25th. Investors of record on Tuesday, July 28th were issued a $0.26 dividend. This is an increase from Fastenal's previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.04 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, July 28th. Fastenal's payout ratio is currently 88.14%.

Insider Activity

In other Fastenal news, Director Michael J. Ancius sold 3,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.00, for a total value of $147,000.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 58,690 shares in the company, valued at $2,875,810. The trade was a 4.86% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Rita Heise sold 34,964 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $50.05, for a total transaction of $1,749,948.20. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 20,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,001,000. This trade represents a 63.61% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.28% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Fastenal Profile

Fastenal Company NASDAQ: FAST is a distributor of industrial and construction supplies. The company provides fasteners such as bolts, nuts, screws and related hardware, along with safety products, tools, material-handling equipment, welding supplies, janitorial products and other maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) materials.

Fastenal serves manufacturers, construction companies, contractors, government organizations and other commercial customers. Its offerings are delivered through a network of branch locations, customer-specific onsite operations, industrial vending machines, e-commerce platforms and other supply-chain services designed to help customers manage inventory and reduce procurement time.

Founded in 1967 by Bob Kierlin in Winona, Minnesota, Fastenal has expanded from a regional fastener supplier into an international industrial distributor.

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