Fastenal Co. (NASDAQ: FAST): How Much Is It Worth And What Should Investors Do?

During the last session, Fastenal Co. (NASDAQ:FAST)’s traded shares were 3.7 million, with the beta value of the company hitting 1.04. At the end of the trading day, the stock’s price was $76.63, reflecting an intraday gain of 1.94% or $1.46. The 52-week high for the FAST share is $79.04, that puts it down -3.14 from that peak though still a striking 34.76% gain since the share price plummeted to a 52-week low of $49.99. The company’s market capitalization is $43.87B, and the average intraday trading volume over the past 10 days was 2.92 million shares, and the average trade volume was 3.93 million shares over the past three months.

Fastenal Co. (NASDAQ:FAST) trade information

Fastenal Co. (FAST) registered a 1.94% upside in the last session and has traded in the red over the past 5 sessions. The stock spiked 1.94% in intraday trading to $76.63, hitting a weekly high. The stock’s 5-day price performance is -0.66%, and it has moved by 3.11% in 30 days. Based on these gigs, the overall price performance for the year is 45.46%. The short interest in Fastenal Co. (NASDAQ:FAST) is 18.35 million shares and it means that shorts have 4.88 day(s) to cover.

Fastenal Co. (FAST) estimates and forecasts

Statistics show that Fastenal Co. has outperformed its competitors in share price, compared to the industry in which it operates. Fastenal Co. (FAST) shares have gone up 40.15% during the last six months, with a year-to-date growth rate more than the industry average at 6.44% against -0.50. Yet analysts are ramping up their growth forecast for the fiscal year 2024. Revenue is predicted to grow 1.90% this quarter and then jump 7.70% in the quarter after that. In the rating firms’ projections, revenue will increase 6.80% compared to the previous financial year.

Revenue for the current quarter is expected to be $1.91 billion as predicted by 11 analyst(s). Meanwhile, a consensus of 11 analyst(s) estimates revenue growth to $2 billion by the end of Jun 2024. As per earnings report from last fiscal year’s results, sales for the corresponding quarters totaled $1.86 billion and $1.89 billion respectively. In this case, analysts expect current quarter sales to grow by 2.90% and then jump by 5.70% in the coming quarter.

An analysis of the company’s performance over the past 5 years shows that the company’s earnings grew an estimated 9.01%. While earnings are projected to return 7.09% in 2024, the next five years will return 6.33% per annum.

FAST Dividends

Fastenal Co. is due to release its next quarterly earnings on April 11. However, it is important to remember that the dividend yield ratio is merely an indicator meant to only serve as guidance. Investors should also take the other fundamental and operational aspects into account before investing in the stock. The forward dividend ratio for Fastenal Co. is 1.44, with the dividend yield indicating at 1.88 percent, continuing the trend of increasing dividends in recent years.

Fastenal Co. (NASDAQ:FAST)’s Major holders

Fastenal Co. insiders own 0.18% of total outstanding shares while institutional holders control 85.19%, with the float percentage being 85.35%. Vanguard Group Inc is the largest shareholder of the company, while 1,509 institutions own stock in it. As of Dec 30, 2023, the company held over 70.34 million shares (or 12.29% of all shares), a total value of $5.39 billion in shares.

The next largest institutional holding, with 46.07 million shares, is of Blackrock Inc.’s that is approximately 8.05% of outstanding shares. At the market price on Dec 30, 2023, these shares were valued at $3.53 billion.

Also, the Mutual Funds coming in first place with the largest holdings of Fastenal Co. (FAST) shares are Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund and Vanguard 500 Index Fund. Data provided on Dec 30, 2023 indicates that Vanguard Total Stock Market Index Fund owns about 17.92 million shares. This amounts to just over 3.13 percent of the company’s overall shares, with a $1.37 billion market value. The same data shows that the other fund manager holds slightly less at 13.96 million, or about 2.44% of the stock, which is worth about $1.07 billion.