Insights on Investing in FAST – Analyst Research

By Kim Brooks • Saturday, October 12 10:12 • Permanent Link

Fastenal logged a 9.8% change during today's morning session, and is now trading at a price of $76.82 per share. The S&P 500 index moved 1.0%. FAST's trading volume is 8,420,969 compared to the stock's average volume of 2,593,596.

Fastenal trades 16.48% away from its average analyst target price of $65.95 per share. The 12 analysts following the stock have set target prices ranging from $37.0 to $85.0, and on average have given Fastenal a rating of hold.

Anyone interested in buying FAST should be aware of the facts below:

Fastenal's current price is 371.3% above its Graham number of $16.3, which implies that at its current valuation it does not offer a margin of safety
Fastenal has moved 28.3% over the last year, and the S&P 500 logged a change of 33.0%
Based on its trailing earnings per share of 2.01, Fastenal has a trailing 12 month Price to Earnings (P/E) ratio of 38.2 while the S&P 500 average is 29.3
FAST has a forward P/E ratio of 35.1 based on its forward 12 month price to earnings (EPS) of $2.19 per share
The company has a price to earnings growth (PEG) ratio of 5.45 — a number near or below 1 signifying that Fastenal is fairly valued compared to its estimated growth potential
Its Price to Book (P/B) ratio is 12.23 compared to its sector average of 3.19
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.
Based in Winona, the company has 20,894 full time employees and a market cap of $44.01 Billion. Fastenal currently returns an annual dividend yield of 2.2%.

The above analysis is intended for educational purposes only and was performed on the basis of publicly available data. It is not to be construed as a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Any buy, sell, or other recommendations mentioned in the article are direct quotations of consensus recommendations from the analysts covering the stock, and do not represent the opinions of Market Inference or its writers. Past performance, accounting data, and inferences about market position and corporate valuation are not reliable indicators of future price movements. Market Inference does not provide financial advice. Investors should conduct their own review and analysis of any company of interest before making an investment decision.