Emerald Advisors LLC Has $538,000 Stake in Fastenal Company $FAST

Emerald Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Fastenal Company (NASDAQ:FAST) by 102.8% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 12,812 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 6,496 shares during the period. Emerald Advisors LLC’s holdings in Fastenal were worth $538,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Patton Fund Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Fastenal in the second quarter valued at approximately $229,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Fastenal by 8.9% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 22,615,915 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,753,864,000 after buying an additional 1,850,871 shares in 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. Finally, 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. 81.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Fastenal Stock Performance

NASDAQ FAST opened at $48.87 on Tuesday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $48.13 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $43.35. The stock has a market cap of $56.09 billion, a PE ratio of 46.99, a PEG ratio of 4.43 and a beta of 0.97. Fastenal Company has a fifty-two week low of $34.69 and a fifty-two week high of $50.63. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a quick ratio of 2.12 and a current ratio of 4.22.

Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST) last posted its earnings results on Monday, July 14th. The company reported $0.29 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by $0.01. The firm 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 company’s revenue was up 8.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.25 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect 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 1.8%. 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.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on FAST shares. Baird R W raised shares of Fastenal from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Loop Capital reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Fastenal in a research note on Tuesday, July 15th. Stifel Nicolaus set a $82.00 price objective on shares of Fastenal in a research note on Thursday, July 3rd. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Fastenal from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $47.00 to $55.00 in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of Fastenal from $41.00 to $46.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have issued a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $46.82.

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.