Harbor Investment Advisory LLC Has $1.75 Million Holdings in Fastenal Company $FAST

Harbor Investment Advisory LLC grew its stake in shares of Fastenal Company (NASDAQ:FAST) by 100.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 41,762 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 20,880 shares during the period. Harbor Investment Advisory LLC’s holdings in Fastenal were worth $1,754,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in Fastenal by 8.9% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 22,615,915 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,753,864,000 after acquiring an additional 1,850,871 shares during the last quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management raised its position in shares of Fastenal by 7.5% in the first quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management now owns 181,482 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,074,000 after buying an additional 12,721 shares in the last quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS raised its position in shares of Fastenal by 3.9% in the first quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS now owns 195,748 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,180,000 after buying an additional 7,400 shares in the last quarter. Raiffeisen Bank International AG raised its position in shares of Fastenal by 21.5% in the first quarter. Raiffeisen Bank International AG now owns 35,606 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,712,000 after buying an additional 6,303 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG raised its position in shares of Fastenal by 23.9% in the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 2,459,124 shares of the company’s stock valued at $190,705,000 after buying an additional 473,987 shares in the last quarter. 81.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on FAST. Baird R W upgraded shares of Fastenal from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Fastenal from $41.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 4th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $82.00 price target on shares of Fastenal in a research report on Thursday, July 3rd. Robert W. Baird upgraded shares of Fastenal from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $47.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Stephens lifted their price target on shares of Fastenal from $40.00 to $45.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $46.82.

Fastenal Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:FAST opened at $47.45 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $47.42 and its 200 day simple moving average is $42.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $54.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.30 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 4.22 and a quick ratio of 2.12. Fastenal Company has a 1 year low of $34.67 and a 1 year high of $50.63.

Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, July 14th. The company reported $0.29 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $2.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.07 billion. Fastenal had a net margin of 15.30% and a return on equity of 32.33%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.25 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Fastenal Company will post 2.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fastenal Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 26th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, July 29th were paid a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, July 29th. Fastenal’s payout ratio is presently 84.62%.

Insider Activity at Fastenal

In other Fastenal news, EVP John Lewis Soderberg sold 34,612 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.03, for a total transaction of $1,662,414.36. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP William Joseph Drazkowski sold 6,842 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.67, for a total transaction of $333,000.14. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 11,994 shares in the company, valued at approximately $583,747.98. The trade was a 36.32% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 111,230 shares of company stock worth $5,288,364. Corporate insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

Fastenal Profile

Fastenal Company, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the wholesale distribution of industrial and construction supplies in the United States, Canada, Mexico, North America, and internationally. It offers fasteners, and related industrial and construction supplies under the Fastenal name. The company’s fastener products include threaded fasteners, bolts, nuts, screws, studs, and related washers that are used in manufactured products and construction projects, as well as in the maintenance and repair of machines.