Fastenal (FAST) Competitors

Tractor Supply (NASDAQ:TSCO) and Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST) are both large-cap retail/wholesale companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, risk, dividends, media sentiment, profitability, institutional ownership, valuation and community ranking.

Which has more risk and volatility, TSCO or FAST?

Tractor Supply has a beta of 0.84, meaning that its stock price is 16% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Fastenal has a beta of 1.05, meaning that its stock price is 5% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has stronger valuation & earnings, TSCO or FAST?

Fastenal has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Tractor Supply. Tractor Supply is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Fastenal, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Tractor Supply	$14.56B	2.03	$1.11B	$10.09	27.15
Fastenal	$7.35B	5.31	$1.16B	$2.02	33.75

Does the MarketBeat Community believe in TSCO or FAST?

Tractor Supply received 589 more outperform votes than Fastenal when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 69.83% of users gave Tractor Supply an outperform vote while only 54.57% of users gave Fastenal an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Tractor Supply	Outperform Votes 1007 69.83%	Underperform Votes 435 30.17%
Fastenal	Outperform Votes 418 54.57%	Underperform Votes 348 45.43%

Is TSCO or FAST a better dividend stock?

Tractor Supply pays an annual dividend of $4.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. Fastenal pays an annual dividend of $1.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. Tractor Supply pays out 43.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Fastenal pays out 77.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Tractor Supply has increased its dividend for 15 consecutive years and Fastenal has increased its dividend for 25 consecutive years. Fastenal is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Does the media favor TSCO or FAST?

In the previous week, Tractor Supply had 46 more articles in the media than Fastenal. MarketBeat recorded 62 mentions for Tractor Supply and 16 mentions for Fastenal. Tractor Supply's average media sentiment score of 0.69 beat Fastenal's score of 0.54 indicating that Fastenal is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Tractor Supply	14 Very Positive mention(s)	6 Positive mention(s)	21 Neutral mention(s)	3 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Fastenal	7 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	4 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Is TSCO or FAST more profitable?

Fastenal has a net margin of 15.68% compared to Fastenal's net margin of 7.61%. Fastenal's return on equity of 53.60% beat Tractor Supply's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Tractor Supply	7.61%	53.60%	12.21%
Fastenal	15.68%	33.98%	25.49%

Do analysts rate TSCO or FAST?

Tractor Supply presently has a consensus price target of $248.17, suggesting a potential downside of 9.21%. Fastenal has a consensus price target of $67.67, suggesting a potential downside of 1.04%. Given Tractor Supply's higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Fastenal is more favorable than Tractor Supply.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Tractor Supply	2 Sell rating(s)	8 Hold rating(s)	14 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50
Fastenal	0 Sell rating(s)	4 Hold rating(s)	1 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.20

Do institutionals and insiders hold more shares of TSCO or FAST?

98.7% of Tractor Supply shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 81.4% of Fastenal shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.2% of Tractor Supply shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of Fastenal shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Fastenal beats Tractor Supply on 11 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.