16,030 Shares of Fastenal Company $FAST Bought by NBT Bank N.A.

NBT Bank N.A. bought a new position in shares of Fastenal Company (NASDAQ:FAST) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm bought 16,030 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $794,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in FAST. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in Fastenal during the second quarter worth about $5,105,454,000. State Street Corp grew its position in Fastenal by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 56,438,968 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,710,764,000 after acquiring an additional 869,793 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new stake in Fastenal during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $859,310,000. Bank of America Corp DE increased its holdings in Fastenal by 12.0% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 16,292,425 shares of the company’s stock valued at $755,969,000 after purchasing an additional 1,744,193 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Baird Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in Fastenal by 1.2% during the 2nd quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 15,561,007 shares of the company’s stock valued at $747,395,000 after purchasing an additional 183,238 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.38% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Fastenal

In other Fastenal news, Director Rita Heise sold 34,964 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.05, for a total transaction of $1,749,948.20. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 20,000 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,001,000. The trade was a 63.61% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Michael J. Ancius sold 3,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, July 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $49.00, for a total transaction of $147,000.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 58,690 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,875,810. The trade was a 4.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Corporate insiders own 0.28% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FAST has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Fastenal from $59.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 15th. Sanford C. Bernstein restated an “underperform” rating and set a $47.00 target price (up from $42.00) on shares of Fastenal in a report on Thursday, October 15th. Wolfe Research started coverage on Fastenal in a research note on Tuesday, September 15th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $51.00 target price for the company. Weiss Ratings raised Fastenal from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Thursday, October 8th. Finally, Argus lifted their price target on Fastenal from $55.00 to $59.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $51.46.

Fastenal Stock Performance

Shares of Fastenal stock opened at $51.91 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a current ratio of 3.93 and a quick ratio of 2.11. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $50.36 and a 200 day simple moving average of $47.73. Fastenal Company has a fifty-two week low of $38.97 and a fifty-two week high of $52.92. The firm has a market cap of $59.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.86, a P/E/G ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 0.69.

Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 14th. The company reported $0.35 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $2.46 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.44 billion. Fastenal had a return on equity of 35.13% and a net margin of 15.62%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.29 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Fastenal Company will post 1.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fastenal Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 25th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, October 28th will be paid a dividend of $0.26 per share. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 28th. Fastenal’s dividend payout ratio is 83.87%.

Fastenal Company Profile

Fastenal Company is a distributor of industrial and construction supplies headquartered in Winona, Minnesota. Founded in 1967, the company primarily serves businesses that require products for manufacturing, construction, maintenance, repair and operations.

Its product range includes threaded fasteners, bolts, nuts, screws, industrial and safety supplies, tools, electrical and plumbing products, material-handling equipment, and other related items. Fastenal also provides inventory-management solutions, including automated vending machines, customer-specific inventory programs and onsite services designed to improve product availability and purchasing efficiency.

Fastenal serves customers through a network of locations and sales channels across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe and parts of Asia.