Fastenal Company $FAST Shares Acquired by 25 LLC

Key Points

• 25 LLC increased its stake in Fastenal by 90.4%, acquiring a total of 12,404 shares valued at $521,000.
• Analysts have raised price targets for Fastenal, with Robert W. Baird increasing its target from $47.00 to $55.00, indicating optimism about the stock's performance.
• Fastenal's dividend has been set at $0.22 quarterly, representing a yield of 1.8% as of the latest announcement.

25 LLC lifted its stake in shares of Fastenal Company (NASDAQ:FAST - Free Report) by 90.4% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 12,404 shares of the company's stock after purchasing an additional 5,890 shares during the quarter. 25 LLC's holdings in Fastenal were worth $521,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in FAST. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Fastenal by 8.9% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 22,615,915 shares of the company's stock worth $1,753,864,000 after purchasing an additional 1,850,871 shares during the period. Congress Asset Management Co. acquired a new position in shares of Fastenal during the 2nd quarter worth $73,733,000. Confluence Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Fastenal by 97.5% during the 2nd quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC now owns 3,280,009 shares of the company's stock worth $137,760,000 after purchasing an additional 1,619,507 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in shares of Fastenal during the 1st quarter worth $119,136,000. Finally, Champlain Investment Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Fastenal by 266.4% during the 1st quarter. Champlain Investment Partners LLC now owns 1,824,055 shares of the company's stock worth $141,455,000 after purchasing an additional 1,326,260 shares during the period. 81.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FAST has been the topic of a number of research reports. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Fastenal from a "neutral" rating to an "outperform" rating and increased their price objective for the company from $47.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Morgan Stanley set a $40.00 price objective on shares of Fastenal and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus set a $82.00 price objective on shares of Fastenal in a research note on Thursday, July 3rd. Wolfe Research reissued a "positive" rating on shares of Fastenal in a research note on Monday, July 14th. Finally, Northcoast Research initiated coverage on shares of Fastenal in a research note on Thursday, August 21st. They issued a "neutral" rating on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $46.82.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP William Joseph Drazkowski sold 6,842 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.67, for a total transaction of $333,000.14. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 11,994 shares in the company, valued at $583,747.98. This represents a 36.32% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP John Lewis Soderberg sold 34,612 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.03, for a total transaction of $1,662,414.36. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 111,230 shares of company stock valued at $5,288,364 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.37% of the company's stock.

Fastenal Price Performance

NASDAQ:FAST opened at $48.17 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $55.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.33 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 4.22, a quick ratio of 2.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The company's 50-day moving average is $48.18 and its two-hundred day moving average is $43.49. Fastenal Company has a 12-month low of $34.69 and a 12-month high of $50.63.

Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Monday, July 14th. The company reported $0.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.28 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $2.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.07 billion. Fastenal had a net margin of 15.30% and a return on equity of 32.33%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.25 EPS. Research analysts expect that Fastenal Company will post 2.15 EPS for the current year.

Fastenal Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 26th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 29th were issued a $0.22 dividend. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, July 29th. Fastenal's dividend payout ratio is 84.62%.

Fastenal Profile

Fastenal Company, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the wholesale distribution of industrial and construction supplies in the United States, Canada, Mexico, North America, and internationally. It offers fasteners, and related industrial and construction supplies under the Fastenal name. The company's fastener products include threaded fasteners, bolts, nuts, screws, studs, and related washers that are used in manufactured products and construction projects, as well as in the maintenance and repair of machines.

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