Fastenal Company (FAST – Analyst Report) is a national wholesale distributor of industrial and construction supplies. It distributes its products through company-owned stores mostly located in North America. The company has gradually grown from a fastener distributor to a full-line industrial supplier.

Fastenal’s vending trends improved in 2015 as efforts on improving the quality of signings/installs paid off. This trend is expected to continue in the near term. However, weakness in sales of the industrial fasteners, lower sales to customers in the oil & gas industry, a stronger U.S. dollar, softness in the Canadian business and overall weakness in the industrial economy continues to act as headwinds.

Investors should also note the recent earnings estimate revisions for FAST has been mostly stable. Moreover, FAST has a favorable history in earnings season. Fastenal has delivered three positive earnings surprises in the last four quarters, making an average positive surprise of 1.67%.

Currently, FAST has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), but that could definitely change following Fastenal’s earnings report which was just released. We have highlighted some of the key stats from this just-revealed announcement below:

Earnings: FAST missed earnings estimate. Our consensus earnings estimate called for EPS of $0.40/share, and the company reported EPS of $0.39. Investors should note that these figures take out stock option expenses.

Revenues: FAST reported revenues of $923 million, in line with our consensus estimate.

Key Stats to Note: Fastenal’s daily sales declined 2%, much less than 15.7% increase in the prior-year quarter.  

Share price: In-active in pre-market trading.

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