Fastenal Company $FAST Stock: Confluence Wealth Services Inc. Decreases Stake

Confluence Wealth Services Inc. reduced its stake in Fastenal Company (NASDAQ:FAST) by 22.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 44,510 shares of the company’s stock after selling 12,841 shares during the quarter. Confluence Wealth Services Inc.’s holdings in Fastenal were worth $2,205,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in Fastenal in the second quarter worth about $5,105,454,000. Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec purchased a new position in Fastenal in the second quarter valued at about $39,417,000. Baird Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 183,238 shares during the period. NEOS Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of Fastenal by 12.4% during the 2nd quarter. NEOS Investment Management LLC now owns 874,887 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,021,000 after acquiring an additional 96,580 shares during the period. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Fastenal by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 10,347,343 shares of the company’s stock worth $496,983,000 after purchasing an additional 50,335 shares during the last quarter. 81.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein reaffirmed an “underperform” rating and issued a $47.00 price target (up from $42.00) on shares of Fastenal in a report on Thursday, October 15th. DA Davidson set a $51.00 price objective on Fastenal and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 13th. William Blair reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Fastenal in a research report on Friday, September 4th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Fastenal from $48.00 to $52.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, Argus increased their price target on Fastenal from $55.00 to $59.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 21st. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $51.46.

Fastenal Stock Performance

Shares of FAST opened at $55.49 on Thursday. Fastenal Company has a 52-week low of $38.97 and a 52-week high of $55.62. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $50.99 and its 200 day simple moving average is $47.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 2.11 and a current ratio of 3.93. The stock has a market capitalization of $63.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.28 and a beta of 0.66.

Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 14th. The company reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $2.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.44 billion. Fastenal had a return on equity of 35.13% and a net margin of 15.62%. The company’s revenue was up 15.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.29 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Fastenal Company will post 1.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fastenal Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 25th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, October 28th will be issued a $0.26 dividend. This represents a $1.04 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, October 28th. Fastenal’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 83.87%.

Fastenal Profile

Fastenal Company is a distributor of industrial and construction supplies, serving businesses that need products to maintain facilities, support production and complete building projects. Its offerings include fasteners such as screws, nuts and bolts, as well as safety supplies, tools and other maintenance, repair and operations products. In addition to product distribution, Fastenal provides services designed to help customers manage supplies and purchasing. These include inventory management, on-site support and industrial vending solutions that make frequently used items available at customer facilities.