Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST) Earns Daily News Sentiment Rating of 0.09

Media headlines about Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST) have been trending somewhat positive recently, Accern reports. The research firm ranks the sentiment of media coverage by analyzing more than 20 million blog and news sources in real time. Accern ranks coverage of publicly-traded companies on a scale of negative one to one, with scores closest to one being the most favorable. Fastenal earned a news sentiment score of 0.09 on Accern’s scale. Accern also assigned headlines about the company an impact score of 45.7629226182509 out of 100, meaning that recent media coverage is somewhat unlikely to have an impact on the stock’s share price in the immediate future.

Here are some of the headlines that may have impacted Accern Sentiment Analysis’s rankings:

• Donaldson Company Announces Board Of Directors Changes (greenevillesun.com)
• After Yesterday’s Decline of 1.37%, Fastenal Co Offers Investors Better Value (mysmartrend.com)
• Advisory Services Network, LLC Increases Its Holdings in Fastenal Company (FAST) Stock (highlightpress.com)
• FAST Dividend Yield Pushes Past 3% (nasdaq.com)
• Watch for Fastenal Co to Potentially Rebound After Falling 1.37% Yesterday (mysmartrend.com)

Shares of Fastenal (FAST) opened at 41.61 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $11.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.90 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $43.15 and a 200-day moving average price of $46.30. Fastenal has a one year low of $37.70 and a one year high of $52.74.

Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 12th. The company reported $0.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.02. Fastenal had a net margin of 12.71% and a return on equity of 26.86%. The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.11 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.46 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that Fastenal will post $1.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, August 23rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 26th will be given a $0.32 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, July 24th. This represents a $1.28 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.08%. Fastenal’s dividend payout ratio is presently 70.33%.

Fastenal declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Tuesday, July 11th that allows the company to repurchase 5,000,000 shares. This repurchase authorization allows the company to reacquire shares of its stock through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on FAST shares. Longbow Research raised Fastenal from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 2nd. Robert W. Baird raised Fastenal from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $53.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, July 12th. Credit Suisse Group set a $52.00 price objective on Fastenal and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 4th. BidaskClub cut Fastenal from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, June 23rd. Finally, Zacks Investment Research raised Fastenal from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $49.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, June 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. The stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $50.14.

In other Fastenal news, Director Daniel L. Johnson purchased 600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 24th. The stock was bought at an average price of $42.71 per share, with a total value of $25,626.00. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Holden Lewis purchased 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 25th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $43.76 per share, with a total value of $43,760.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 1,000 shares in the company, valued at $43,760. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders acquired a total of 3,600 shares of company stock valued at $154,256 in the last three months. 0.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Fastenal Company Profile

Fastenal Company is engaged in wholesale distribution of industrial and construction supplies. The Company is engaged in fastener distribution, and non-fastener maintenance and supply business. As of December 31, 2016, it distributed these supplies through a network of approximately 2,500 stores. Its customers are in the manufacturing and non-residential construction markets.