BlackRock Fund Advisors recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Fastenal Co. (NASDAQ:FAST). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Industrials company by 0.46% to 31.0 million shares with purchase of 0.14 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 5.42% valued currently at $1.81 billion. In addition, SSgA Funds Management, Inc. raised its holdings by 0.64 million to 28.11 million shares. And Geode Capital Management LLC has lifted its position by 2.03% or 0.29 million shares – to 14.41 million shares.
With over 3.86 million Fastenal Co. (FAST) shares trading Tuesday and a closing price of $63.88 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $246.35 million. The shares have shown a positive half year performance of 14.52% and its price on 12/12/23 gained nearly 0.84%. Currently, there are 570.81M common shares owned by the public and among those 570.24M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 15 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for FAST have a consensus price objective of $60.00. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $66.00 and a low of $56.00. The average price target is -6.47% below its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -14.07% over that period. But an upside of 3.21% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $60.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 21 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 11 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 161,316 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 10 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 159,335 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Fastenal Co. are Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, Vanguard 500 Index Fund, and Vanguard Mid Cap Index Fund. Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF owns 17.87 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $1.04 billion. The company bought an additional 79671.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 3.13% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard 500 Index Fund bought 68985.0 shares to see its total holdings expand to 13.8 million shares valued at over $805.08 million and representing 2.42% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Mid Cap Index Fund bought 32698.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 12.97 million shares at a value of $756.91 million. Vanguard Mid Cap Index Fund now owns shares totaling to 2.27% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Fastenal Co. (NASDAQ: FAST) opened at $63.52, up $0.17 from a prior closing price of $63.35. However, the script later moved the day high at 63.93, up 0.84%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of 5.15% and 17.51% over the past three months. FAST shares are trading 35.84% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance up to 26.14% higher. It has a 12-month low price of $45.42 and touched a high of $63.39 over the same period. FAST has an average intraday trading volume of 3.42 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by 5.32%, 8.67%, and 14.40% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Fastenal Co. (NASDAQ: FAST) shares accounts for 81.60% of the company’s 570.81M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 43.76%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 6.47% and 38.40% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $36.50B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 1.06. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 32.26, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $1.98. The company has a PEG of 5.10 and a Quick Ratio of 2.45 with the debt-to-equity ratio at 0.16. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 1.26% over the week and 1.22% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Fastenal Co. (FAST) will achieve an EPS of $Direxion Financial Bull 3X Shar for the current quarter, $76.01 for the next quarter and $ETF for Type. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $Fastenal Company while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $Carrols Restaurant Group, Inc.. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $FAT Brands Inc. a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 5.94%, and 6.19% over the next financial year. EPS should shrink at an annualized rate of 6.33% over the next five years, compared to 13.44% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 15 brokerage firm advisors rate Fastenal Co. (FAST) as a “Hold” at a consensus score of 3.07. Specifically, 2 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 10 of the 15 advise that investors “hold,” and 2 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the FAST, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. HSBC Securities stated their Hold rating for the stock in a research note on September 15, 2023, with the firm’s price target at $59.
