CoreFirst Bank & Trust Purchases Shares of 1,400 Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST)

CoreFirst Bank & Trust acquired a new position in shares of Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 1,400 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $101,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new position in Fastenal in the 4th quarter valued at $46,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Fastenal in the fourth quarter valued at about $49,000. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Fastenal in the fourth quarter valued at about $49,000. R Squared Ltd acquired a new position in shares of Fastenal in the fourth quarter valued at about $68,000. Finally, Eastern Bank increased its position in Fastenal by 440.7% during the fourth quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 984 shares of the company’s stock worth $71,000 after acquiring an additional 802 shares during the period. 81.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FAST has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on shares of Fastenal from $86.00 to $82.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. HSBC downgraded Fastenal from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating and set a $70.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. William Blair raised Fastenal from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, March 10th. Wolfe Research upped their target price on Fastenal from $74.00 to $76.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on Fastenal from $74.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $76.91.

Fastenal Price Performance

FAST stock opened at $77.09 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $44.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.35, a P/E/G ratio of 3.58 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 4.67 and a quick ratio of 2.28. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $75.23 and a 200 day simple moving average of $75.81. Fastenal has a 1 year low of $61.36 and a 1 year high of $84.88.

Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, January 17th. The company reported $0.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.48 by ($0.02). Fastenal had a return on equity of 32.55% and a net margin of 15.25%. The company had revenue of $1.82 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.84 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.46 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 3.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts anticipate that Fastenal will post 2.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fastenal Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st were paid a dividend of $0.43 per share. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.23%. This is a positive change from Fastenal’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 31st. Fastenal’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 85.57%.

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.