Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST) Shares Acquired by Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. lifted its holdings in Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST) by 6.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 17,689 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 1,031 shares during the quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in Fastenal were worth $1,272,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FAST has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Fastenal from $74.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Wolfe Research raised their price target on Fastenal from $74.00 to $76.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. William Blair upgraded shares of Fastenal from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 10th. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on shares of Fastenal from $86.00 to $82.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of Fastenal from a “hold” rating to a “moderate sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. 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. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $76.91.

Fastenal Stock Performance

Fastenal stock opened at $76.17 on Monday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $75.35 and a 200 day moving average price of $75.98. Fastenal has a 52 week low of $61.36 and a 52 week high of $84.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.90, a PEG ratio of 3.58 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a current ratio of 4.67, a quick ratio of 2.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03.

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

Fastenal Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st were issued a $0.43 dividend. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.26%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 31st. This is a positive change from Fastenal’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. Fastenal’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 85.57%.

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.