Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST) Short Interest Update

Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST) was the target of a large decrease in short interest in December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 11,310,000 shares, a decrease of 6.0% from the November 30th total of 12,030,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 2,740,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.1 days. Approximately 2.0% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Fastenal news, CAO Sheryl Ann Lisowski sold 13,567 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.19, for a total transaction of $1,033,669.73. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 5,096 shares in the company, valued at $388,264.24. This represents a 72.69 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Daniel L. Florness sold 31,818 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $84.50, for a total transaction of $2,688,621.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 286,018 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,168,521. This represents a 10.01 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 158,289 shares of company stock worth $12,639,438 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.41% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in FAST. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fastenal during the 2nd quarter valued at about $99,000. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in Fastenal by 8.9% during the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 118,454 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,444,000 after acquiring an additional 9,728 shares during the period. Graypoint LLC raised its position in Fastenal by 9.4% during the second quarter. Graypoint LLC now owns 7,955 shares of the company’s stock valued at $500,000 after acquiring an additional 685 shares in the last quarter. Confluence Wealth Services Inc. lifted its holdings in Fastenal by 49.2% in the second quarter. Confluence Wealth Services Inc. now owns 5,984 shares of the company’s stock valued at $376,000 after acquiring an additional 1,972 shares during the period. Finally, Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its position in Fastenal by 270.0% in the 2nd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 7,138 shares of the company’s stock worth $443,000 after purchasing an additional 5,209 shares in the last quarter. 81.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FAST has been the topic of several analyst reports. Bank of America assumed coverage on Fastenal in a research note on Monday, October 7th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $85.00 target price on the stock. Hsbc Global Res lowered shares of Fastenal from a “hold” rating to a “moderate sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 11th. Stephens raised their target price on shares of Fastenal from $56.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Fastenal from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Fastenal from $74.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $77.40.

Fastenal Stock Performance

Shares of FAST opened at $71.91 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $79.32 and a two-hundred day moving average of $72.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 2.29 and a current ratio of 4.40. The stock has a market cap of $41.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.78, a P/E/G ratio of 4.69 and a beta of 1.00. Fastenal has a one year low of $61.33 and a one year high of $84.88.

Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST) last issued its earnings results on Friday, October 11th. The company reported $0.52 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.51 by $0.01. Fastenal had a return on equity of 33.30% and a net margin of 15.44%. The firm had revenue of $1.91 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.90 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.52 earnings per share. Fastenal’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Fastenal will post 2.03 EPS for the current year.

Fastenal Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, October 25th were issued a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 25th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.17%. Fastenal’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 77.61%.

About Fastenal

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.