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. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 2.87%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, July 24th. View Fastenal Company's Dividend History.

Fastenal Company declared that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Wednesday, July 12th 2017, which allows the company to buyback 5,000,000 shares, according to EventVestor. This buyback authorization allows the company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

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

Fastenal Company is scheduled to release their next quarterly earnings announcement on Wednesday, October, 11th 2017. View Earnings Estimates for Fastenal Company.

15 equities research analysts have issued 12 month target prices for Fastenal Company's shares. Their forecasts range from $43.00 to $55.00. On average, they anticipate Fastenal Company's share price to reach $50.50 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 August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 27,872,426 shares, an increase of 9.2% from the August 15th total of 25,515,615 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 2,817,946 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 9.9 days. Approximately 9.7% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

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

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 a variety of of institutional and retail investors. Top institutional shareholders 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, Lord Abbett & CO. LLC, Victory Capital Management Inc., Korea Investment CORP and Montag & Caldwell 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 $44.54.