Investors Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST)

Fastenal Company (NASDAQ:FAST - Get Free Report) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Stock investors acquired 10,737 call options on the company. This is an increase of 381% compared to the average daily volume of 2,233 call options.

Insider Activity at Fastenal

In related news, Director Scott Satterlee sold 19,340 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $39.76, for a total transaction of $768,861.70. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 50,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,987,750. This trade represents a 27.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Daniel L. Florness sold 100,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, April 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $41.06, for a total value of $4,106,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 565,036 shares of the company's stock, valued at $23,200,378.16. This represents a 15.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 163,200 shares of company stock valued at $6,675,975 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.37% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Fastenal by 1.4% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 73,317,271 shares of the company's stock worth $5,685,754,000 after purchasing an additional 1,016,479 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in Fastenal by 8.9% in the first 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 last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Fastenal by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,918,464 shares of the company's stock worth $1,214,002,000 after buying an additional 234,713 shares during the period. Baird Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Fastenal by 1.7% in the 1st quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 8,418,765 shares of the company's stock worth $652,875,000 after acquiring an additional 142,972 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Fastenal by 15.2% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 7,322,739 shares of the company's stock valued at $526,578,000 after acquiring an additional 966,629 shares in the last quarter. 81.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Fastenal Trading Up 0.1%

Shares of NASDAQ FAST traded up $0.07 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $45.14. 4,471,128 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,035,932. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $41.57 and a 200 day simple moving average of $39.25. The stock has a market capitalization of $51.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.98, a PEG ratio of 4.01 and a beta of 0.96. Fastenal has a twelve month low of $32.04 and a twelve month high of $46.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 2.14 and a current ratio of 4.28.

Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Monday, July 14th. The company reported $0.29 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 15.13% and a return on equity of 31.99%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 8.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.25 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Fastenal will post 2.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Fastenal Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, August 26th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, July 29th will be issued a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, July 29th. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.95%. Fastenal's dividend payout ratio is currently 88.00%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on FAST. Wolfe Research reaffirmed a "positive" rating on shares of Fastenal in a research note on Monday. Stifel Nicolaus set a $82.00 target price on Fastenal in a research note on Thursday, July 3rd. Stephens raised their target price on Fastenal from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley set a $40.00 target price on Fastenal and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 3rd. Finally, Loop Capital reiterated a "hold" rating on shares of Fastenal in a research report on Tuesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $45.64.

About Fastenal

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.