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MSC Industrial Direct (MSM) Competitors

MSC Industrial Direct logo
$87.35 +0.29 (+0.33%)
Closing price 03:59 PM Eastern
Extended Trading
$87.36 +0.02 (+0.02%)
As of 05:22 PM Eastern
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MSM vs. FAST, LECO, AIT, DCI, DOV, GGG, GWW, ITT, ITW, and KMT

Should 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 Kennametal (KMT).

MSC Industrial Direct vs. Its Competitors

Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST) and MSC Industrial Direct (NYSE:MSM) are both trading companies & distributors companies, but which is the better business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, earnings, risk, valuation, profitability, media sentiment, institutional ownership and dividends.

Fastenal currently has a consensus price target of $45.64, indicating a potential downside of 4.43%. MSC Industrial Direct has a consensus price target of $90.33, indicating a potential upside of 3.42%. Given MSC Industrial Direct's stronger consensus rating and higher probable 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)
3 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.17
MSC Industrial Direct
0 Sell rating(s)
3 Hold rating(s)
1 Buy rating(s)
1 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.60

In the previous week, Fastenal had 7 more articles in the media than MSC Industrial Direct. MarketBeat recorded 13 mentions for Fastenal and 6 mentions for MSC Industrial Direct. MSC Industrial Direct's average media sentiment score of 1.48 beat Fastenal's score of 0.98 indicating that MSC Industrial Direct is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company Very Positive Positive Neutral Negative Very Negative Overall Sentiment
Fastenal
9 Very Positive mention(s)
0 Positive mention(s)
3 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive
MSC Industrial Direct
6 Very Positive mention(s)
0 Positive mention(s)
0 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive

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%

Fastenal has a beta of 0.96, suggesting that its share price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MSC Industrial Direct has a beta of 0.87, suggesting that its share price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500.

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 Ratio
Fastenal$7.55B7.26$1.15B$1.0445.91
MSC Industrial Direct$3.82B1.27$258.59M$3.5424.67

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 3.9%. 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 raised its dividend for 26 consecutive years and MSC Industrial Direct has raised its dividend for 3 consecutive years.

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 insiders. Comparatively, 18.3% of MSC Industrial Direct shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Summary

Fastenal beats MSC Industrial Direct on 13 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.

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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time

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.
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Media Sentiment Over Time

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.
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MSM vs. The Competition

MetricMSC Industrial DirectIndustrial Services IndustryIndustrials SectorNYSE Exchange
Market Cap$4.85B$17.32B$7.88B$21.12B
Dividend Yield3.91%2.29%4.55%3.60%
P/E Ratio24.6721.1725.5628.44
Price / Sales1.275.79101.4660.38
Price / Cash13.7413.2627.9222.92
Price / Book3.534.314.464.69
Net Income$258.59M$608.64M$795.63M$995.51M
7 Day Performance0.01%7.21%1.37%1.64%
1 Month Performance6.51%12.98%6.68%5.92%
1 Year Performance1.97%12.60%32.75%11.50%

MSC Industrial Direct Competitors List

CompanyMarketRankShare PriceAnalysts' Price Target1Y Price PerformanceMarket CapRevenueP/E RatioEmployee CountIndicator(s)
MSM
MSC Industrial Direct
3.9768 of 5 stars
$87.35
+0.3%
$90.33
+3.4%
+6.3%$4.85B$3.82B24.677,423Positive News
FAST
Fastenal
4.343 of 5 stars
$46.48
+0.9%
$45.64
-1.8%
+42.4%$53.34B$7.55B44.6923,702
LECO
Lincoln Electric
3.8375 of 5 stars
$221.66
-0.1%
$222.60
+0.4%
+13.4%$12.37B$4.01B27.3312,000News Coverage
Upcoming Earnings
Dividend Announcement
AIT
Applied Industrial Technologies
4.1041 of 5 stars
$263.13
+0.9%
$285.00
+8.3%
+31.0%$10.02B$4.48B26.426,500Positive News
DCI
Donaldson
3.9943 of 5 stars
$70.77
+0.5%
$70.00
-1.1%
-1.2%$8.25B$3.59B23.7514,000Positive News
Dividend Announcement
DOV
Dover
4.8284 of 5 stars
$188.33
+0.0%
$208.58
+10.8%
+5.8%$25.82B$7.73B11.3524,000Trending News
Earnings Report
Analyst Forecast
GGG
Graco
4.4558 of 5 stars
$86.72
+0.2%
$93.00
+7.2%
+4.7%$14.49B$2.15B30.644,300Trending News
Earnings Report
Analyst Forecast
GWW
W.W. Grainger
3.3532 of 5 stars
$1,031.97
+0.4%
$1,116.25
+8.2%
+12.8%$49.58B$17.17B26.4926,000Positive News
Upcoming Earnings
ITT
ITT
4.5837 of 5 stars
$158.81
-0.2%
$173.25
+9.1%
+16.1%$12.50B$3.63B25.2511,700Positive News
Upcoming Earnings
ITW
Illinois Tool Works
4.5322 of 5 stars
$257.00
+0.7%
$255.67
-0.5%
+9.5%$75.30B$15.90B22.6044,000Positive News
Upcoming Earnings
KMT
Kennametal
2.6483 of 5 stars
$24.74
+0.7%
$25.40
+2.7%
+3.7%$1.89B$2.05B17.808,447Positive News

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This page (NYSE:MSM) was last updated on 7/25/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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