Fastenal Short Interest Ratio and Short Volume

Short interest is the volume of Fastenal shares that have been sold short but have not yet been closed out or covered. As of January 29th, traders have sold 12,330,000 shares of FAST short. 2.15% of Fastenal's shares are currently sold short. View details.

The short interest ratio, also known as the "days to cover ratio", is calculated by dividing the number of shares of a stock sold short divided by its average trading volume. A short interest ratio ranging between 1 and 4 generally indicates strong positive sentiment about a stock and a lack of short sellers. A short interest ratio of 10 or greater indicates strong pessimism about a stock. Fastenal currently has a short interest ratio of 4.0.

Companies that have a short interest as a percentage of float below 10% indicates positive investor sentiment and few short sellers. Stocks with a short interest percentage above 10% is considered high, suggesting some investors are pessimistic about the stock. Companies with a short interest percentage of 20% or more indicates widespread negative sentiment. 2.15% of Fastenal's floating shares are currently sold short.

Fastenal saw a decrease in short interest in January. As of January 29th, there was short interest totaling 12,330,000 shares, a decrease of 9.5% from the previous total of 13,630,000 shares. Changes in short volume can be used to identify positive and negative investor sentiment. Investors that short sell a stock are betting that its price will decline in the future. An increase in short sale volume suggests bearish (negative) sentiment among investors. A decrease on short sale volume suggests bullish (positive) sentiment.

Fastenal currently has issued a total of 574,317,000 shares. Some of Fastenal's outstanding shares are available for trading, while others are subject to various restrictions. The public float, also referred to as floating shares or "the float", are shares that publicly owned, unrestricted and available to trade on the open market. Fastenal currently has a public float of 572,170,000 shares.

2.15% of Fastenal's shares are currently sold short. Here is how the short interest of companies in the sub-industry of "trading companies & distributors" compare to Fastenal: United Rentals, Inc. (5.06%), W.W. Grainger, Inc. (1.39%), Watsco, Inc. (0.00%), Air Lease Co. (6.40%), MSC Industrial Direct Co., Inc. (0.00%), WESCO International, Inc. (3.34%), GATX Co. (13.89%), Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc. (1.41%), Beacon Roofing Supply, Inc. (5.15%), and Rush Enterprises, Inc. (0.00%).

As of the most recent reporting period, the following stocks had the largest short interest positions: Aon Plc ($5.34 billion), Charter Communications, Inc. ($5.03 billion), ViacomCBS Inc. ($4.99 billion), DuPont de Nemours, Inc. ($4.72 billion), Analog Devices, Inc. ($4.57 billion), Snap Inc. ($3.87 billion), Moderna, Inc. ($3.58 billion), Futu Holdings Limited ($2.75 billion), Snowflake Inc. ($2.43 billion), and Palantir Technologies Inc. ($2.18 billion). View all of the most shorted stocks.

Short selling FAST is an investing strategy that aims to generate trading profit from Fastenal as its price is falling. Fastenal's stock is trading up $0.10 today. To short Fastenal stock, an investor borrows shares, sells them and buys the shares back on the public market later to return it to the lender. Short sellers are betting that Fastenal will decline in price. If the stock does drop after selling, the short seller buys it back at a lower price and returns it to the lender. The difference between the sell price and the buy price is the trader's profit.

A short squeeze for Fastenal occurs when it has a large amount of short interest and its stock increases in price. This forces short sellers to cover their short interest positions by buying actual shares of FAST, which in turn drives the price of the stock up even further.

Short interest is typically published by a stock exchange once per month. However, NASDAQ publishes a report for U.S. stocks, including FAST, twice per month. The most recent reporting period available is January, 29 2021.