Fastenal Company $FAST Shares Bought by Patton Albertson Miller Group LLC

Patton Albertson Miller Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Fastenal Company (NASDAQ:FAST) by 111.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 9,350 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,931 shares during the period. Patton Albertson Miller Group LLC’s holdings in Fastenal were worth $393,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of Fastenal by 8.9% during the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 22,615,915 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,753,864,000 after acquiring an additional 1,850,871 shares in the last quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management lifted its position in shares of Fastenal by 7.5% during the first quarter. Picton Mahoney Asset Management now owns 181,482 shares of the company’s stock worth $14,074,000 after purchasing an additional 12,721 shares during the last quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS lifted its position in shares of Fastenal by 3.9% during the first quarter. KLP Kapitalforvaltning AS now owns 195,748 shares of the company’s stock worth $15,180,000 after purchasing an additional 7,400 shares during the last quarter. Raiffeisen Bank International AG lifted its position in shares of Fastenal by 21.5% during the first quarter. Raiffeisen Bank International AG now owns 35,606 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,712,000 after purchasing an additional 6,303 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG lifted its position in shares of Fastenal by 23.9% during the first quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 2,459,124 shares of the company’s stock worth $190,705,000 after purchasing an additional 473,987 shares during the last quarter. 81.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP John Lewis Soderberg sold 34,612 shares of Fastenal stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.03, for a total transaction of $1,662,414.36. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Sheryl Ann Lisowski sold 21,052 shares of Fastenal stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $45.21, for a total value of $951,760.92. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 10,192 shares in the company, valued at approximately $460,780.32. This trade represents a 67.38% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 111,230 shares of company stock worth $5,288,364. 0.37% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

FAST has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Robert W. Baird raised shares of Fastenal from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $47.00 to $55.00 in a research report on Thursday, August 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of Fastenal from $41.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 4th. Morgan Stanley set a $40.00 price target on shares of Fastenal and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 3rd. Northcoast Research initiated coverage on shares of Fastenal in a research report on Thursday, August 21st. They set a “neutral” rating on the stock. Finally, Wolfe Research reaffirmed a “positive” rating on shares of Fastenal in a research report on Monday, July 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Fastenal currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $46.82.

Fastenal Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ FAST opened at $48.70 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 2.12, a current ratio of 4.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $48.07 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $43.23. Fastenal Company has a 52-week low of $34.69 and a 52-week high of $50.63. The stock has a market capitalization of $55.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.83, a P/E/G ratio of 4.43 and a beta of 0.97.

Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, July 14th. The company reported $0.29 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.28 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $2.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.07 billion. Fastenal had a return on equity of 32.33% and a net margin of 15.30%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.25 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Fastenal Company will post 2.15 earnings per share for the current year.

Fastenal Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 26th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, July 29th were issued a dividend of $0.22 per share. This represents a $0.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, July 29th. Fastenal’s payout ratio is 84.62%.

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.