One-glance verdict
Overvalued
$27.53 our estimate vs market $46.66
Wall Street consensus: $47.84 (73.8% higher than our fair-value estimate)
70% above our estimate, beyond the bull case
Fundamentals snapshot
Fastenal Company
FAST · NMS · Industrials · Industrial Distribution
Current price
$46.66
52-week range
$38.97 - $50.63
Market cap
$53.54B
Balance sheet
Healthy
267.05x Strong cushion
Net debt $236.80M. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
3 Rewards
2 Risks
3 rewards · 2 risks
- Reward Revenue grew 6.7% last year.
- Reward Returns 34.3% on equity, ahead of 66% of its peers.
- Risk Stock trades 26.1% above its 5-year average P/E.
- Risk Insider ownership is only 0.1% (peer median: 1.9%).
What this company does
Fastenal Company
Fastenal acts like a giant hardware store for other businesses, selling essential but often overlooked parts like nuts, bolts, screws, and safety equipment. The company makes money by supplying these crucial items to a wide variety of customers, from large factories and construction crews to local governments. Because its sales are spread across many different types of industries, a slowdown in one area may be balanced out by business from others, which can help keep its performance steady.
How the company got here
Fastenal began in 1967 in Winona, Minnesota, as a local shop selling fasteners like screws, nuts, and bolts. [1, 4, 5] After its 1987 initial public offering (a way for a private company to raise money by selling shares to the public), it used the funds to expand across the country. [1, 5] Over the years, the company grew from a simple product seller into a service provider, adding thousands of industrial and safety products to its lineup. [1] A key turning point was the development of industrial vending machines and 'Onsite' locations, which involved placing a mini-Fastenal branch directly inside a customer's factory. [1, 4, 18]
What it actually does
Fastenal is a wholesale distributor, which means it buys industrial and construction supplies in large quantities and sells them to other businesses. [9] Think of it as a giant hardware store for factories, construction sites, and other companies, selling everything from basic nuts and bolts to safety gear, tools, and cleaning supplies. [3, 14] Its main customers are in the manufacturing and non-residential construction industries. [3] A big part of its business is not just selling products, but providing services that help customers manage their supply chain (the process of getting the resources a company needs to make its products and deliver them to consumers). [2]
Fasteners
This is the company's original and best-known business, making up about a quarter of its sales. [8, 11] This segment includes all types of threaded fasteners—like bolts, nuts, screws, and studs—that are used to build products, construct buildings, and repair machinery. [3] Customers, such as original equipment manufacturers (companies that make parts or equipment used in another company's end product), buy these items in huge volumes. While it's no longer the majority of the business, Fastenal is still the largest distributor of fasteners in North America. [2, 4]
Safety, Tools, and Other Supplies
This is the larger part of the business and includes a vast range of other products that factories and job sites need to operate. This category covers everything from safety equipment like gloves and glasses to cutting tools, janitorial supplies, and material handling products. [3, 14] By offering this wide variety, Fastenal aims to become a one-stop shop for its customers' maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) needs. This broadens its relationship with customers beyond just being a supplier of nuts and bolts. [8]
Onsite and Vending Services
Instead of just selling goods from a store, Fastenal brings the store directly to its biggest customers. Through its 'Onsite' model, the company sets up and staffs a small, dedicated distribution point inside a customer's facility, acting as their embedded supply partner. [18, 24, 25] It also provides technology-based inventory solutions like 'FASTVend' industrial vending machines and 'FASTBin' smart storage systems that automatically track when supplies are low and reorder them. [8] These services make customers more reliant on Fastenal and help them run their own operations more efficiently. [17]
What management is betting on now
The company's main strategy is to get more deeply embedded with its customers through its Onsite locations and technology. [1, 21] Management believes there is a large opportunity to nearly double the number of Onsite locations, making Fastenal an essential part of its clients' day-to-day operations. [8] Another major focus is growing its 'Digital Footprint,' which includes sales from e-commerce (selling goods online) and its automated vending and bin systems. [1, 12] The goal is to make it easier for customers to get what they need, which in turn makes them more loyal and likely to buy a wider range of products from Fastenal. [17]
Price history
How the share price has moved
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Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
FY2024 Q3
$237.50M
FY2024 Q4
$222.60M
FY2025 Q1
$206.50M
FY2025 Q2
$209.30M
FY2025 Q3
$326.60M
FY2025 Q4
$308.20M
FY2026 Q1
$319.50M
FY2026 Q2
$201.60M
Revenue
$2.39B
Net income
$382.80M
Diluted EPS
0.33
Operating cash flow
$265.70M
Free cash flow
$201.60M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$2.20B
Net income
$339.80M
Diluted EPS
0.30
Operating cash flow
$378.40M
Free cash flow
$319.50M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$2.03B
Net income
$293.90M
Diluted EPS
-0.01
Operating cash flow
$368.20M
Free cash flow
$308.20M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$2.13B
Net income
$335.50M
Diluted EPS
0.29
Operating cash flow
$386.90M
Free cash flow
$326.60M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$2.08B
Net income
$330.30M
Diluted EPS
0.29
Operating cash flow
$278.60M
Free cash flow
$209.30M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.96B
Net income
$298.70M
Diluted EPS
0.52
Operating cash flow
$262.20M
Free cash flow
$206.50M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.82B
Net income
$262.10M
Diluted EPS
0.45
Operating cash flow
$282.80M
Free cash flow
$222.60M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.91B
Net income
$298.10M
Diluted EPS
0.52
Operating cash flow
$296.90M
Free cash flow
$237.50M
Fetching…
Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $27.53 vs current price $46.66
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $47.84 (73.8% higher than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $27.53 a share — about 41.0% below today's price of $46.66, so the stock currently looks expensive (overvalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Healthy
Net debt $236.8M. Interest coverage 267.0x.
Net debt
$236.80M
Interest coverage
267.05x
Fastenal Company's profit covers its interest bill about 267.0 times over. which is stronger than every peer shown here.
Healthy
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
FAST
BASELINE
Fastenal Company
Total debt $441.50M Interest coverage 267.05x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $2.78B Interest coverage 30.80x -88% vs FAST Carries about 8.7x less debt cushion than FAST.
Total debt $6.51B Interest coverage 3.19x -99% vs FAST Carries about 83.8x less debt cushion than FAST.
Total debt $6.65B Interest coverage 7.43x -97% vs FAST Carries about 35.9x less debt cushion than FAST.
Total debt $365.30M Interest coverage 27.37x -90% vs FAST Carries about 9.8x less debt cushion than FAST.
Total debt $555.42M Interest coverage 12.99x -95% vs FAST Carries about 20.6x less debt cushion than FAST.
What you should know
The case for and against FAST
3 Rewards
2 Risks
Rewards
-
Revenue grew 6.7% last year.
-
Returns 34.3% on equity, ahead of 66% of its peers.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 10/10 years.
Risks
-
Stock trades 26.1% above its 5-year average P/E.
-
Insider ownership is only 0.1% (peer median: 1.9%).
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
40.93x
Forward P/E
33.43x
P/B
13.16x
P/S
6.12x
EV/EBITDA
27.51x
PEG ratio
3.46x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
44.7%
Operating margin
21.0%
Net margin
15.5%
ROE
34.3%
ROA
21.5%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
0.11x
Current ratio
4.18x
Quick ratio
2.00x
Total debt
$441.50M
Total cash
$204.70M
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$8.75B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
8.1%
EPS TTM
1.14
EPS 5Y CAGR
4.9%
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$1.40B
Free CF TTM
$1.05B
FCF margin
12.0%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
2.0%
Payout ratio
78.6%
Last ex-div date
2026-07-28