MSM vs. FAST, LECO, AIT, DCI, DOV, GGG, GWW, ITT, ITW, and TKR
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 Timken (TKR).
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 superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, profitability, analyst recommendations, risk, media sentiment, institutional ownership and valuation.
81.4% of Fastenal shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 79.3% of MSC Industrial Direct shares are held by institutional investors. 0.4% of Fastenal shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 18.3% of MSC Industrial Direct shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
Fastenal presently has a consensus target price of $46.82, indicating a potential downside of 6.87%. MSC Industrial Direct has a consensus target price of $90.33, indicating a potential downside of 2.45%. Given MSC Industrial Direct's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe MSC Industrial Direct is more favorable than Fastenal.
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.
Fastenal has a beta of 0.97, meaning that its share price is 3% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, MSC Industrial Direct has a beta of 0.95, meaning that its share price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500.
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.
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.
In the previous week, Fastenal had 18 more articles in the media than MSC Industrial Direct. MarketBeat recorded 25 mentions for Fastenal and 7 mentions for MSC Industrial Direct. Fastenal's average media sentiment score of 1.30 beat MSC Industrial Direct's score of 1.25 indicating that Fastenal is being referred to more favorably in the media.
Summary
Fastenal 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.
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.
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.
MSC Industrial Direct Competitors List
Related Companies and Tools
This page (NYSE:MSM) was last updated on 9/4/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
