Brophy Wealth Management LLC Acquires Shares of 10,020 Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST)

Brophy Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 10,020 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $716,000.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Marshfield Associates raised its holdings in Fastenal by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Marshfield Associates now owns 2,011,096 shares of the company’s stock valued at $143,632,000 after acquiring an additional 10,123 shares during the last quarter. LRI Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of Fastenal by 169.4% during the 3rd quarter. LRI Investments LLC now owns 1,355 shares of the company’s stock valued at $97,000 after acquiring an additional 852 shares during the last quarter. Hamilton Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Fastenal in the third quarter valued at about $207,000. EWA LLC acquired a new stake in Fastenal during the third quarter worth about $190,000. Finally, Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in Fastenal by 7.5% during the third quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 802,404 shares of the company’s stock worth $57,308,000 after purchasing an additional 56,235 shares during the last quarter. 81.38% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FAST has been the subject of several analyst reports. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Fastenal from $72.00 to $76.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Bank of America initiated coverage on Fastenal in a research report on Monday, October 7th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $85.00 price objective for the company. UBS Group started coverage on Fastenal in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $88.00 target price on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $86.00 price target (up previously from $80.00) on shares of Fastenal in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on Fastenal from $74.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Fastenal presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $76.80.

Fastenal Stock Performance

Shares of Fastenal stock opened at $80.32 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $46.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.79 and a beta of 1.00. 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 business has a 50-day moving average of $78.81 and a 200 day moving average of $70.98. Fastenal has a 12 month low of $61.33 and a 12 month high of $84.88.

Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, October 11th. The company reported $0.52 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.51 by $0.01. Fastenal had a net margin of 15.44% and a return on equity of 33.30%. The business had revenue of $1.91 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.90 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.52 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Fastenal will post 2.03 earnings per share for the current year.

Fastenal Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 25th were given a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.94%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 25th. Fastenal’s dividend payout ratio is currently 77.61%.

Insider Activity

In other Fastenal news, EVP Anthony Paul Broersma sold 680 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $77.86, for a total value of $52,944.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, VP John Lewis Soderberg sold 488 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $76.32, for a total transaction of $37,244.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 208,289 shares of company stock worth $16,123,438. Corporate insiders own 0.41% of the company’s stock.

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.