Alliancebernstein L.P. Decreases Stock Holdings in Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST)

Alliancebernstein L.P. lessened its stake in shares of Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST) by 1.4% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 599,131 shares of the company’s stock after selling 8,436 shares during the quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P.’s holdings in Fastenal were worth $43,084,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in FAST. OFI Invest Asset Management bought a new position in Fastenal during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $46,000. Whipplewood Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of Fastenal in the 4th quarter worth $49,000. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Fastenal in the fourth quarter worth $49,000. R Squared Ltd purchased a new stake in Fastenal during the fourth quarter valued at $68,000. Finally, Eastern Bank lifted its holdings in Fastenal by 440.7% in the fourth quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 984 shares of the company’s stock valued at $71,000 after acquiring an additional 802 shares during the period. 81.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. HSBC lowered shares of Fastenal from a “hold” rating to a “reduce” rating and set a $70.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Wednesday, December 11th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Fastenal from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Thursday. William Blair raised shares of Fastenal from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 10th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Fastenal from $86.00 to $82.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Hsbc Global Res lowered Fastenal from a “hold” rating to a “moderate sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $76.91.

Fastenal Stock Down 4.6 %

Shares of FAST opened at $74.42 on Friday. Fastenal has a 12-month low of $61.36 and a 12-month high of $84.88. The company has a current ratio of 4.67, a quick ratio of 2.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. The company has a market capitalization of $42.68 billion, a PE ratio of 37.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.58 and a beta of 1.04. The business’s 50 day moving average is $75.48 and its 200 day moving average is $76.19.

Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST) last released its earnings results on Friday, January 17th. The company reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.48 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $1.82 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.84 billion. Fastenal had a return on equity of 32.55% and a net margin of 15.25%. Fastenal’s quarterly revenue was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.46 EPS. Research analysts expect that Fastenal will post 2.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Fastenal Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st were given a dividend of $0.43 per share. This is a positive change from Fastenal’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 31st. This represents a $1.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.31%. Fastenal’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 85.57%.

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.