Fastenal Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.39 (NASDAQ:FAST)

Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, April 10th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Thursday, April 25th will be given a dividend of 0.39 per share on Thursday, May 23rd. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 24th.

Fastenal has raised its dividend payment by an average of 11.9% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 25 years. Fastenal has a payout ratio of 67.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Fastenal to earn $2.31 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.56 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 67.5%.

Fastenal Price Performance

FAST stock opened at $67.45 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.06, a current ratio of 4.83 and a quick ratio of 2.49. Fastenal has a one year low of $52.28 and a one year high of $79.04. The stock has a market cap of $38.62 billion, a PE ratio of 33.39, a P/E/G ratio of 3.53 and a beta of 1.05. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $73.57 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $66.55.

Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 11th. The company reported $0.52 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $1.90 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.91 billion. Fastenal had a return on equity of 33.98% and a net margin of 15.68%. The company’s revenue was up 1.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.52 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Fastenal will post 2.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Fastenal

In other Fastenal news, insider William Joseph Drazkowski sold 11,968 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, January 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.10, for a total value of $826,988.80. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 5,997 shares in the company, valued at approximately $414,392.70. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, insider William Joseph Drazkowski sold 11,968 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, January 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $69.10, for a total value of $826,988.80. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 5,997 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $414,392.70. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Charles S. Miller sold 11,076 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $75.16, for a total transaction of $832,472.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 48,050 shares of company stock worth $3,411,049 in the last three months. 0.41% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on FAST. Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on shares of Fastenal from $77.00 to $71.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 12th. HSBC boosted their price objective on shares of Fastenal from $59.00 to $64.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. Loop Capital lowered their price target on shares of Fastenal from $71.00 to $66.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Monday, April 15th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of Fastenal from $75.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 18th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $67.67.

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.