Fastenal Company Company Profile (NASDAQ:FAST)

Fastenal Company trades on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol "FAST."

Fastenal Company announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, July 11th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 26th will be given a dividend of $0.32 per share on Wednesday, August 23rd. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.08%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, July 24th. View Fastenal Company's Dividend History.

Fastenal Company declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase program on Wednesday, July 12th 2017, which authorizes the company to buyback 5,000,000 shares, according to EventVestor. This buyback authorization authorizes the company to purchase shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company's board believes its shares are undervalued.

Fastenal Company (NASDAQ:FAST) released its earnings results on Wednesday, July, 12th. The company reported $0.52 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the Zacks' consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.11 billion. Fastenal Company had a net margin of 12.71% and a return on equity of 26.86%. The company's revenue was up 10.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.46 earnings per share. View Fastenal Company's Earnings History.

Fastenal Company is scheduled to release their next quarterly earnings announcement on Tuesday, October, 10th 2017. View Earnings Estimates for Fastenal Company.

15 analysts have issued 12-month target prices for Fastenal Company's stock. Their forecasts range from $43.00 to $55.00. On average, they expect Fastenal Company's share price to reach $50.80 in the next twelve months. View Analyst Ratings for Fastenal Company.

Here are some recent quotes from research analysts about Fastenal Company stock:

• 1. According to Zacks Investment Research, "Fastenal reported a stellar second quarter with earnings and revenues beating the consensus mark. Earnings grew 13.4% and sales rose 10.6% year over year driven by higher units sales on improvement in underlying market demand and growth in industrial vending business and existing Onsite locations. After a soft 2013, vending trends improved through 2014, 2015 and 2016 as management’s efforts to enhance the quality of signings/installs paid off. As of Jun 30, 2017, Fastenal operated 66,577 vending machines, up 14.1% year over year. Gross margin rose 30 bps in the quarter due to improvement in supply chain initiatives, increased discipline in purchasing and efficient utilization of fleet. Meanwhile, in spite of the improvement in gross margin in the quarter, changes in product and customer mix continued to affect gross profit, as did the addition of Mansco." (8/3/2017)
• 2. Credit Suisse Group analysts commented, "FAST put up a good operational Q4 beat and exceeded GM expectations which were helped by cost initiatives. However, Q4 felt fairly similar to Q3 from a demand perspective - in fact, December ADS was even shy of expectations (and so were Oct-Nov). There were areas of improvement, particularly with oil/processing customers, yet core industrial customers were largely unchanged. FAST traded up 6% on just a modest $0.02 beat which continues to reflect how the market is discounting current trends in favor of distributors' early/short cycle leverage in out years. The play here is less about fundamental EPS upside and more so where the multiple goes, in our view. In fact, our EPS est's are only increasing 2.8% and 4.7% for 2017 and 2018, respectively. Expectations are soaring, and sooner or later FAST's ADS will need to accelerate to justify its multiple. At current levels, we don't see a favorable enough risk/reward, keeping us sidelined. Our $49 TP (from $41) assumes 27x our 2018 EPS of $2.00, discounted back, and we reiterate our Neutral rating. We are raising 2017 and 2017 EPS estimates to $1.83 and $2 (from $1.78 and $1.91)." (1/19/2017)

Fastenal Company saw a increase in short interest during the month of July. As of July 31st, there was short interest totalling 25,467,716 shares, an increase of 3.7% from the July 14th total of 24,562,364 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 3,880,243 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 6.6 days. Approximately 8.9% of the company's stock are short sold.

Some companies that are related to Fastenal Company include Expedia (EXPE), Ross Stores (ROST), Kroger Company (The) (KR), Dollar General Corporation (DG), Tesco PLC (TSCDY), Best Buy Co. (BBY), O'Reilly Automotive (ORLY), Dollar Tree (DLTR), Koninklijke Ahold Delhaize NV (AHONY), Ulta Beauty (ULTA), AutoZone (AZO), Restaurant Brands International (QSR), Whole Foods Market (WFM), CarMax (KMX), L Brands (LB), Tiffany & Co. (TIF), MercadoLibre (MELI) and Darden Restaurants (DRI).

Fastenal Company's management team includes the folowing people:

• Willard D. Oberton, Chairman of the Board
• Daniel L. Florness, President, Chief Executive Officer, Director
• Holden Lewis, Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President
• William J. Drazkowski, Executive Vice President – National Accounts Sales
• Leland J. Hein Jr., Senior Executive Vice President – Sales
• James C. Jansen, Executive Vice President – Manufacturing
• Nicholas J. Lundquist, Senior Executive Vice President – Operations
• Charles S. Miller, Executive Vice President - Sales
• Terry M. Owen, Senior Executive Vice President – Sales Operations
• Gary A. Polipnick, Executive Vice President – FAST Solutions

Fastenal Company's stock is owned by many different of retail and institutional investors. Top institutional investors include Vanguard Group Inc. (10.96%), BlackRock Inc. (6.18%), Bank of New York Mellon Corp (5.18%), State Street Corp (4.11%), Northern Trust Corp (1.55%) and Bahl & Gaynor Inc. (1.08%). Company insiders that own Fastenal Company stock include Daniel L Florness, Daniel L Johnson, Darren R Jackson, Gary A Polipnick, Holden Lewis, James C Jansen, John Lewis Soderberg, Kenneth R Nance, Leland J Hein, Michael J Ancius, Michael John Dolan, Reyne K Wisecup, Sheryl Ann Lisowski, Stephen L Eastman, Terry Modock Owen, Willard D Oberton and William Joseph Drazkowski. View Institutional Ownership Trends for Fastenal Company.

Fastenal Company's stock was sold by a variety of institutional investors in the last quarter, including Strs Ohio, Russell Investments Group Ltd., Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC, FMR LLC, Victory Capital Management Inc., Korea Investment CORP, Montag & Caldwell LLC and Balyasny Asset Management LLC. Company insiders that have sold Fastenal Company stock in the last year include Leland J Hein, Michael John Dolan, Reyne K Wisecup and Willard D Oberton. View Insider Buying and Selling for Fastenal Company.

Fastenal Company's stock was purchased by a variety of institutional investors in the last quarter, including Janus Henderson Group PLC, Vanguard Group Inc., Nicholas Company Inc., The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company , Confluence Investment Management LLC, Gotham Asset Management LLC, Koch Industries Inc. and Marathon Asset Management LLP. Company insiders that have bought Fastenal Company stock in the last two years include Daniel L Johnson, Darren R Jackson, Holden Lewis, Michael J Ancius, Stephen L Eastman and William Joseph Drazkowski. View Insider Buying and Selling for Fastenal Company.

Shares of Fastenal Company can be purchased through any online brokerage account. Popular online brokerages include Vanguard Brokerage Services, TD Ameritrade, E*TRADE, Scottrade, Fidelity and Charles Schwab.

One share of Fastenal Company stock can currently be purchased for approximately $41.61.