Critical Contrast: Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST) & Gold.com (NYSE:GOLD)

Gold.com (NYSE:GOLD – Get Free Report) and Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST – Get Free Report) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their dividends, profitability, analyst recommendations, risk, valuation, institutional ownership and earnings.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Gold.com and Fastenal, as provided by MarketBeat.

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Gold.com currently has a consensus price target of $58.00, suggesting a potential upside of 39.04%. Fastenal has a consensus price target of $49.50, suggesting a potential downside of 1.96%. Given Gold.com’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Gold.com is more favorable than Fastenal.

Dividends

Gold.com pays an annual dividend of $0.80 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. Fastenal pays an annual dividend of $1.04 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.1%. Gold.com pays out 27.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Fastenal pays out 88.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Fastenal has raised its dividend for 26 consecutive years. Fastenal is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Profitability

This table compares Gold.com and Fastenal’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Gold.com and Fastenal”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

Fastenal has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Gold.com. Gold.com is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Fastenal, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

62.9% of Gold.com shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 81.4% of Fastenal shares are held by institutional investors. 16.5% of Gold.com shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.3% of Fastenal shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Volatility & Risk

Gold.com has a beta of 0.71, meaning that its stock price is 29% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Fastenal has a beta of 0.69, meaning that its stock price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Fastenal beats Gold.com on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Gold.com

(Get Free Report)

Gold.com, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a precious metals company. It operates through three segments: Wholesale Sales & Ancillary Services, Direct-to-Consumer, and Secured Lending. The Wholesale Sales & Ancillary Services segment sells gold, silver, platinum, and palladium in the form of bars, plates, powders, wafers, grains, ingots, and coins. This segment also offers complementary services, such as receiving, handling, inventorying, processing, packing, and shipping of precious metals and custom coins on a secure basis; and designs and produces minted silver products. The Direct-to-Consumer segment provides access to gold, silver, copper, platinum, and palladium products primarily through its websites; rarities and numismatic collections; and numismatic and bullion products. It operates various websites targeting specific niches within the precious metals retail market. This segment also operates as a direct retailer of precious metals to the investor community and markets its precious metal products on television, radio, and the internet, as well as through customer service outreach. The Secured Lending segment originates and acquires commercial loans secured by bullion, numismatic coins, and graded sports cards. The company serves customers, including financial institutions, bullion retailers, industrial manufacturers and fabricators, sovereign mints, refiners, coin and metal dealers, investors, collectors, and e-commerce and other retail customers. It operates in the United States, Europe, Canada, Asia Pacific, Africa, Australia, and South America. The company was formerly known as A-Mark Precious Metals, Inc. and changed its name to Gold.com, Inc. in December 2025. The company was founded in 1965 and is headquartered in Costa Mesa, California.

About Fastenal

(Get Free Report)

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. It also offers miscellaneous supplies and hardware, including pins, machinery keys, concrete anchors, metal framing systems, wire ropes, strut products, rivets, and related accessories. The company serves the manufacturing market comprising original equipment manufacturers; maintenance, repair, and operations customers; non-residential construction market; farmers, truckers, railroads, mining companies, schools, and retail trades; and oil exploration, production, and refinement companies, as well as federal, state, and local governmental entities. Fastenal Company was founded in 1967 and is headquartered in Winona, Minnesota.

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