Fastenal Company

Time to Buy the Latest Tech Company to Warn?

By Lee Samaha - May 22, 2013 | Tickers: ADBE, ADSK, FAST, MSM

There have been two major themes to the Q1 reporting season. The first is that tech spending has been weak across the board and the second is that –outside of pockets like aerospace and automotive- the industrial sector has been weak too. Cue Autodesk’s(NASDAQ: ADSK) latest set of results. It’s a software company and its end markets are industrial. The rest is history. Its results were disappointing more »
Intentional Investing: Tough Love on Housing Recovery (Part 4)

By Penny Czarra - May 20, 2013 | Tickers: FAST, MSM, GWW

Looking for some “housing recovery” investment prospects? Does reasonable growth + reasonable risk + reasonable price have a place in your portfolio?

Well, that’s what I’m looking for right now. And I think I may have found three contenders worthy of further study.

Surprise, surprise! There are businesses out there that generate impressive and consistent returns on invested capital. Industrial Traders/Distributors Fastenal (NASDAQ: FAST), MSC Industrial Direct (NYSE: MSM more »)
What I Bought and Sold This Quarter

By Lee Samaha - May 15, 2013 | Tickers: COF, CHKP, FAST, INTC, PPG

I would rather forget last month. After nine months of gains, I hit a nasty double digit loss. In truth, this sort of thing was inevitable and the preceding months were as much a part of the process as last month was. The previous month’s write-up and links to others can be found here. I do this stuff because I happen to believe that anyone writing about investment should more »
Are Prospects Getting Better for This Industrial Stock?

By Lee Samaha - May 2, 2013 | Tickers: CGNX, FAST, INTC

It’s been a fascinating –if at times confusing-earnings season for the industrials. In the good old days all an investor needed to do was look at the ISM manufacturing index and generally expect his stock to trade in the direction of its trends. Not anymore. In this disjointed recovery all industrial sectors are equal, but some are more equal than others. The question is does your stock have exposure more »
Why This Industrial Distributor Is Poised To Jump

By Lalit Kumar - April 22, 2013 | Tickers: AXE, FAST, MSM, GWW, WCC

The stock market has turned volatile after hitting new highs earlier this month. It is prudent to exercise caution and be stock specific while investing in these uncertain times. I would ideally prefer to invest in a stock trading at relatively low valuations, with good earnings visibility and some potential catalysts to take it higher. I scanned through a lot of companies trading at a discount to their average historical more »
Don't Miss out on This FAST Growing Stock

By Marshall Hargrave - April 20, 2013 | Tickers: ARG, FAST, GWW

Fastenal Company's (NASDAQ: FAST)name no longer does the company justice, as the company has grown from a fastener distributor to a full-line industrial supplier. This stock should be one of the faster growing stocks over the interim. In the first quarter of 2013, Fastenal saw its gross margin expand by 70 basis points year over year to 52.6%.

One of Fastenal's most innovative initiatives is its more »
Don't Miss Out On This FAST Growing Stock

By Marshall Hargrave - April 17, 2013 | Tickers: ARG, FAST, GWW

Fastenal Company (NASDAQ: FAST)name is no longer does the company justice, as the company has grown from a fastener distributor to a full-line industrial supplier. This stock should be one of the fast-growing stocks over the interim. In the first quarter of 2013, Fastenal saw its gross margin expand by 70 basis points year over year to 52.6%.

One of Fastenal's most innovative initiatives is its more »
Why Are These Industrial Stocks so Weak?

By Lee Samaha - April 13, 2013 | Tickers: AA, ATI, FAST, MSM

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into industrial stocks, Fastenal (NASDAQ: FAST) and MSC Industrial Direct(NYSE: MSM) delivered results that raised more questions than answers. Both companies were downbeat and went to lengths to describe how their businesses weren’t performing in line with the headline manufacturing ISM numbers. So what is going on, and what is the read across from these earnings?

ISM Not more »
The Key Earnings for the Week (April 8)

By Lee Samaha - April 8, 2013 | Tickers: AA, FAST, MSM, PIR, RAD

Is it just me or does it seem that earnings season should no longer be called a season, but rather an ongoing activity? Alcoa’s (NYSE: AA) results usually mark the beginning of the season, and as they come up next week, I guess it’s time to declare a new season open.

It’s been a good quarter for equities, but some recent weakness in the ISM data is more »
A Solid Income Growth Pick for your Portfolio

By Piyush Arora - April 4, 2013 | Tickers: FAST, MAS, VMC

Home constructions in the US have reached to their 4-year high levels, and the monthly liquidity injections are expected to further contribute to infrastructure development. Naturally, investing in REITs comes as an obvious choice but their rising prepayment rates and narrowing spreads are straining their profitability, and encouraging them to further leverage their operations. To take advantage of the residential infrastructural development, investors should stick to general building providers, which more »
The Key Earnings For The Week (April 8)

By Lee Samaha - April 3, 2013 | Tickers: AA, FAST, MSM, PIR, RAD

Is it just me or does it seems that earnings season should no longer be called a season but rather an ongoing activity? Alcoa’s (NYSE: AA) results usually mark the beginning of the season and, as they come up next week, I guess it’s time to declare a new season open.

It’s been a good quarter for equities but some recent weakness in the ISM data is more »
Outlining This Construction Play's Growth Opportunities

By Lee Samaha - March 18, 2013 | Tickers: FAST, SWK

Buying the US housing recovery has been one of the most profitable trades over the last year, but what of Stanley Black & Decker (NYSE: SWK)? With 54% of its revenues coming from North America, it is obviously a play on a resumption of residential and commercial construction spending in the region, but is it that simple?

As you may have guessed by now, my rhetorical questions are leading to the more »
Davos Elites See Opportunity in Latin America and Africa

By Reuben Brewer - February 5, 2013 | Tickers: E, FAST, WMT

Davos is the location of the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. It's supposedly where the worlds best and brightest share ideas. One idea that has percolated to the top at this year's event is that the next big growth stories will be Latin America and Africa. There are some relatively safe ways to get access to these regions that you may not realize.
Good Growth but This Company's Evaluation Looks Rich

By Lee Samaha - January 23, 2013 | Tickers: FAST, HD, MSM, GWW

Fastenal (NASDAQ: FAST) investors would have looked at the upcoming results with a sense of trepidation following MSC Industrial’s (NYSE: MSM) recent report. The good news is that they weren’t as bad as some had feared and the stock rallied. However, the underlying trends aren’t so positive for the industrial sector in general and much of the growth was related to expanding sales via its vending machines more »
Strong Post-Earning Performers that Could Continue to Perform

By Brian Nichols - January 18, 2013 | Tickers: ASML, BLK, FAST, NUS

Citigroup, Bank of America, and eBay were the most highly anticipated earnings yesterday, but none of these was the most impressive -- there were several other companies that truly set themselves apart. In this article I am looking at several of these companies, and what it could mean for their stock.

ASML Holding (NASDAQ: ASML)

In my opinion, ASML Holding provided us with one of the best quarters of the day more »
Is There a Buying Opportunity in This Long Term Growth Story?

By Lee Samaha - January 17, 2013 | Tickers: AMZN, FAST, MSM, GWW

It’s early in earnings season, but I think that one trend is already appearing in the industrial sector. Acuity Brands said earlier that its lighting customers had adopted a ‘wait and see’ approach to purchasing in the previous quarter (you can read about here). Its argument was that a combination of election and ‘fiscal cliff’ considerations caused customers to delay purchasing. It was a similar story with MSC Industrial more »
3 Fundamental Growth Picks for Your Portfolio

By Piyush Arora - December 14, 2012 | Tickers: CERN, FAST, NVDA, QCOM
This Fastener Supplier is Still Pricey

By Anh HOANG - December 12, 2012 | Tickers: FAST, MSM, GWW

Fastenal Company (NASDAQ: FAST) has seen some mixed signals of insider transactions since November. I’ve seen several articles mentioning that Daniel Florness, the company’s CFO, just bought 2,645 shares at an average price of $41.50 per share, with the total transaction value of nearly $110,000. However, dated in November, Robert Kierlin, the Independent Chairman, sold 200,000 shares, with the total transaction value of more more »
A Watchlist of Great Stocks to Monitor

By Lee Samaha - December 11, 2012 | Tickers: CHD, CL, COST, FAST, GOOG

One of the most frustrating things about investing is finding a great stock then pricing it out and discovering that everyone else seems to have done the same thing! In other words, the stock is not good enough value. In this scenario many investors just buy it anyway, but the more disciplined among us will try to keep these things on a monitor list. Now monitoring a monitor list is more »
Fastenal’s CFO Bought About $100,000 in Stock

By Meena Krishnamsetty - December 9, 2012 | Tickers: AXE, FAST, MSM, GWW, WCC

Daniel Florness, the CFO of Fastenal Company (NASDAQ: FAST), purchased just over 2,600 shares of the company’s stock on Dec. 5 at a average price of $41.50, according to a filing with the SEC. Florness now owns about 45,000 shares of the stock between his direct holdings and his 401k plan. Fastenal is a wholesaler and retailer of industrial and construction supplies, including bolts, nuts, and more »

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