Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST) Research Coverage Started at StockNews.com

StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST – Get Rating) in a research note published on Thursday morning. The brokerage issued a hold rating on the stock.

FAST has been the subject of several other reports. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on Fastenal from $43.00 to $42.00 and set an underweight rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 6th. Loop Capital reduced their target price on Fastenal from $54.00 to $53.00 and set a hold rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Fastenal presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $51.14.

Fastenal Stock Down 0.5 %

Shares of Fastenal stock traded down $0.24 on Thursday, hitting $52.14. The company had a trading volume of 9,203,221 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,863,237. The stock has a market capitalization of $29.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.44, a P/E/G ratio of 3.00 and a beta of 1.19. Fastenal has a 1 year low of $43.73 and a 1 year high of $60.74. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $51.30 and a 200-day moving average of $49.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 1.79 and a current ratio of 3.96.

Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST – Get Rating) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 19th. The company reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.42 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $1.70 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.67 billion. Fastenal had a return on equity of 34.38% and a net margin of 15.57%. Fastenal’s quarterly revenue was up 10.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.40 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Fastenal will post 1.94 earnings per share for the current year.

Fastenal Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 2nd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 2nd were issued a dividend of $0.35 per share. This represents a $1.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.69%. This is a positive change from Fastenal’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.31. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 1st. Fastenal’s dividend payout ratio is 73.68%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fastenal

In other Fastenal news, VP Terry Modock Owen sold 15,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $53.24, for a total transaction of $798,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 7,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $372,680. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.45% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fastenal

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in FAST. Roundview Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Fastenal by 0.6% in the first quarter. Roundview Capital LLC now owns 85,339 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,069,000 after acquiring an additional 479 shares during the period. Vontobel Holding Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Fastenal by 55.3% in the first quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 19,099 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,140,000 after acquiring an additional 6,797 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. boosted its holdings in shares of Fastenal by 18.1% in the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 239,760 shares of the company’s stock worth $14,218,000 after acquiring an additional 36,709 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its holdings in shares of Fastenal by 24.6% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 26,251 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,559,000 after acquiring an additional 5,190 shares during the period. Finally, Moors & Cabot Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Fastenal by 9.0% in the first quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 9,534 shares of the company’s stock worth $566,000 after acquiring an additional 786 shares during the period. 76.99% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Fastenal Company Profile

(Get Rating)

Fastenal Co engages in the distribution of fasteners and tools. It also operates hardware stores. The company was founded by Robert A. Kierlin, Michael M. Gostomski, Henry K. McCannon, John D. Remick, and Stephen M. Slaggie in November 1967 and is headquartered in Winona, MN.