MSC Industrial Direct (MSM) Competitors $90.90 +1.71 (+1.91%) Closing price 09/26/2025 03:59 PM EasternExtended Trading$90.95 +0.04 (+0.05%) As of 09/26/2025 07:08 PM Eastern Extended trading is trading that happens on electronic markets outside of regular trading hours. This is a fair market value extended hours price provided by Polygon.io. Learn more. Add Compare Share Share Competitors Stock AnalysisAnalyst ForecastsChartCompetitorsDividendEarningsFinancialsHeadlinesInsider TradesOptions ChainOwnershipSEC FilingsShort InterestSustainabilityTrendsBuy This Stock MSM vs. FAST, LECO, AIT, DCI, DOV, GGG, GWW, ITT, ITW, and TKRShould you be buying MSC Industrial Direct stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of MSC Industrial Direct include Fastenal (FAST), Lincoln Electric (LECO), Applied Industrial Technologies (AIT), Donaldson (DCI), Dover (DOV), Graco (GGG), W.W. Grainger (GWW), ITT (ITT), Illinois Tool Works (ITW), and Timken (TKR). MSC Industrial Direct vs. Its Competitors Fastenal Lincoln Electric Applied Industrial Technologies Donaldson Dover Graco W.W. Grainger ITT Illinois Tool Works Timken Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST) and MSC Industrial Direct (NYSE:MSM) are both trading companies & distributors companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation, media sentiment, dividends and profitability. Do institutionals & insiders have more ownership in FAST or MSM? 81.4% of Fastenal shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 79.3% of MSC Industrial Direct shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.4% of Fastenal shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 18.3% of MSC Industrial Direct shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term. Do analysts prefer FAST or MSM? Fastenal currently has a consensus target price of $46.82, indicating a potential downside of 3.86%. MSC Industrial Direct has a consensus target price of $90.33, indicating a potential downside of 0.63%. Given MSC Industrial Direct's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe MSC Industrial Direct is more favorable than Fastenal.Company Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score Fastenal 1 Sell rating(s) 8 Hold rating(s) 4 Buy rating(s) 1 Strong Buy rating(s) 2.36MSC Industrial Direct 0 Sell rating(s) 4 Hold rating(s) 1 Buy rating(s) 1 Strong Buy rating(s) 2.50 Which has stronger valuation and earnings, FAST or MSM? Fastenal has higher revenue and earnings than MSC Industrial Direct. MSC Industrial Direct is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Fastenal, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks. CompanyGross RevenuePrice/Sales RatioNet IncomeEarnings Per SharePrice/Earnings RatioFastenal$7.55B7.41$1.15B$1.0446.83MSC Industrial Direct$3.82B1.32$258.59M$3.5425.68 Which has more risk & volatility, FAST or MSM? Fastenal has a beta of 0.97, indicating that its stock price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MSC Industrial Direct has a beta of 0.95, indicating that its stock price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500. Is FAST or MSM more profitable? Fastenal has a net margin of 15.30% compared to MSC Industrial Direct's net margin of 5.30%. Fastenal's return on equity of 32.33% beat MSC Industrial Direct's return on equity.Company Net Margins Return on Equity Return on Assets Fastenal15.30% 32.33% 24.62% MSC Industrial Direct 5.30%14.99%8.39% Is FAST or MSM a better dividend stock? Fastenal pays an annual dividend of $0.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. MSC Industrial Direct pays an annual dividend of $3.40 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.7%. Fastenal pays out 84.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. MSC Industrial Direct pays out 96.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Fastenal has increased its dividend for 26 consecutive years and MSC Industrial Direct has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years. Does the media favor FAST or MSM? In the previous week, Fastenal had 59 more articles in the media than MSC Industrial Direct. MarketBeat recorded 61 mentions for Fastenal and 2 mentions for MSC Industrial Direct. Fastenal's average media sentiment score of 1.59 beat MSC Industrial Direct's score of 0.72 indicating that Fastenal is being referred to more favorably in the media. Company Very Positive Positive Neutral Negative Very Negative Overall Sentiment Fastenal 52 Very Positive mention(s) 3 Positive mention(s) 5 Neutral mention(s) 0 Negative mention(s) 0 Very Negative mention(s) Very Positive MSC Industrial Direct 1 Very Positive mention(s) 0 Positive mention(s) 1 Neutral mention(s) 0 Negative mention(s) 0 Very Negative mention(s) Positive SummaryFastenal beats MSC Industrial Direct on 14 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks. Get MSC Industrial Direct News Delivered to You Automatically Sign up to receive the latest news and ratings for MSM and its competitors with MarketBeat's FREE daily newsletter. Subscribe Now View SMS TermsBy entering your phone number and clicking the sign-up button, you agree to receive periodic text messages from MarketBeat at the phone number you submitted, including texts that may be sent using an automatic telephone dialing system. Message and data rates may apply. Message frequency will vary. Messages will consist of stock alerts, news stories, and partner advertisements/offers. Consent is not a condition of the purchase of any goods or services. Text HELP for help/customer support. Unsubscribe at any time by replying "STOP" to any text message that you receive from MarketBeat or by visiting our mailing preferences page. Read our full terms of service and privacy policy. New MarketBeat Followers Over TimeWhat are MarkeBeat Followers?This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding MSM and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period. Skip ChartMedia Sentiment Over TimeWhat is Media Sentiment?This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.Skip Chart MSM vs. The Competition Export to ExcelMetricMSC Industrial DirectIndustrial Services IndustryIndustrials SectorNYSE ExchangeMarket Cap$5.06B$17.90B$7.70B$21.60BDividend Yield3.74%2.28%4.58%3.53%P/E Ratio25.6822.54303.4829.51Price / Sales1.329.93266.5460.54Price / Cash14.3514.0128.2024.62Price / Book3.634.804.744.56Net Income$258.59M$647.08M$799.16M$1.00B7 Day Performance-0.42%0.62%0.10%-0.17%1 Month Performance-0.09%5.51%2.11%1.84%1 Year Performance4.38%22.62%26.29%12.17% MSC Industrial Direct Competitors List Export to ExcelCompanyMarketRankShare PriceAnalysts' Price Target1Y Price PerformanceMarket CapRevenueP/E RatioEmployee CountIndicator(s)MSMMSC Industrial Direct3.5177 of 5 stars$90.91+1.9%$90.33-0.6%+4.4%$5.06B$3.82B25.687,423Positive NewsFASTFastenal4.2603 of 5 stars$47.14-0.9%$46.82-0.7%+36.2%$54.18B$7.55B45.4023,702News CoveragePositive NewsLECOLincoln Electric4.1395 of 5 stars$237.78-0.2%$239.33+0.7%+22.4%$13.12B$4.01B26.7112,000Positive NewsAITApplied Industrial Technologies4.781 of 5 stars$264.48+1.5%$285.00+7.8%+17.3%$9.98B$4.56B26.136,800Positive NewsDCIDonaldson4.2559 of 5 stars$80.81-0.3%$80.33-0.6%+9.7%$9.42B$3.69B26.5014,000Positive NewsDOVDover4.891 of 5 stars$170.26-0.6%$213.92+25.6%-12.8%$23.36B$7.75B10.2824,000Trending NewsAnalyst RevisionGGGGraco4.2998 of 5 stars$84.36-0.3%$94.50+12.0%-3.4%$13.98B$2.11B29.934,300Positive NewsAnalyst RevisionGWWW.W. Grainger4.5267 of 5 stars$982.61-0.5%$1,069.13+8.8%-7.3%$47.01B$17.17B24.9426,000Positive NewsAnalyst RevisionITTITT4.4198 of 5 stars$182.12+0.6%$188.11+3.3%+17.9%$14.18B$3.70B28.5811,700ITWIllinois Tool Works4.2575 of 5 stars$261.10-0.3%$260.67-0.2%-1.0%$76.12B$15.90B22.8944,000Positive NewsTKRTimken4.323 of 5 stars$76.61-1.1%$79.82+4.2%-11.1%$5.33B$4.57B17.4119,000Analyst Forecast Related Companies and Tools Related Companies Fastenal Competitors Lincoln Electric Competitors Applied Industrial Technologies Competitors Donaldson Competitors Dover Competitors Graco Competitors W.W. Grainger Competitors ITT Competitors Illinois Tool Works Competitors Timken Competitors Top 10 Stock Comparisons Semiconductor Stocks Artificial Intelligence Stocks Growth Stocks Magnificent Seven Stocks Pharmaceutical Stocks Ecommerce Stocks Bitcoin Stocks Meme Stocks Cryptocurrency Stocks Cybersecurity Stocks This page (NYSE:MSM) was last updated on 9/28/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff From Our PartnersIs NVDA in a bubble? 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