Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST) Shares Bought by Meeder Advisory Services Inc.

Meeder Advisory Services Inc. grew its stake in Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST) by 3.8% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 13,145 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 487 shares during the period. Meeder Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in Fastenal were worth $939,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Fastenal by 84.5% during the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,735 shares of the company’s stock worth $210,000 after buying an additional 1,253 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Fastenal by 10.2% in the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 84,534 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,520,000 after purchasing an additional 7,796 shares during the period. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC increased its stake in Fastenal by 20.2% during the first quarter. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC now owns 6,849 shares of the company’s stock valued at $528,000 after purchasing an additional 1,149 shares during the last quarter. InterOcean Capital Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Fastenal by 6.7% during the first quarter. InterOcean Capital Group LLC now owns 3,976 shares of the company’s stock worth $307,000 after purchasing an additional 251 shares during the period. Finally, MQS Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Fastenal in the 1st quarter worth about $340,000. Institutional investors own 81.38% of the company’s stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Daniel L. Florness sold 50,000 shares of Fastenal stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.68, for a total transaction of $3,484,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 286,018 shares in the company, valued at approximately $19,929,734.24. The trade was a 14.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Sheryl Ann Lisowski sold 13,567 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $76.19, for a total value of $1,033,669.73. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 5,096 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $388,264.24. This represents a 72.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 208,289 shares of company stock worth $16,123,438 over the last ninety days. 0.41% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FAST has been the topic of several research reports. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Fastenal in a research note on Monday, October 7th. They set a “buy” rating and a $85.00 price objective on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $86.00 price target (up previously from $80.00) on shares of Fastenal in a report on Monday, October 14th. Stephens upped their price objective on Fastenal from $56.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Fastenal from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Fastenal from $72.00 to $76.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Fastenal has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $74.80.

Fastenal Trading Down 0.3 %

Fastenal stock opened at $81.59 on Wednesday. Fastenal has a 12-month low of $59.47 and a 12-month high of $84.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03, a current ratio of 4.40 and a quick ratio of 2.29. The stock has a market capitalization of $46.74 billion, a PE ratio of 40.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.80 and a beta of 0.99. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $75.49 and a 200-day simple moving average of $69.43.

Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 11th. The company reported $0.52 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.51 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $1.91 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.90 billion. Fastenal had a net margin of 15.44% and a return on equity of 33.30%. Fastenal’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.52 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Fastenal will post 2.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fastenal Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 25th will be issued a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.91%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 25th. Fastenal’s payout ratio is 77.61%.

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.