Fastenal (FAST) to Report Earnings Tomorrow: What to Expect

Industrial supplier Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST) is set to report earnings tomorrow before the market opens. Here’s what to watch for.

Fastenal met analysts’ revenue expectations in the latest quarter, reporting revenue of $1.90 billion, up 1.9% year over year. It was a decent quarter for the company, impressively beating analyst estimates for volume but falling short of analyst estimates for earnings.

Is Fastenal a Buy or Sell in terms of earnings? Read our full analysis here, it’s free.

Analysts are expecting Fastenal’s revenue to rise 1.7% year over year to $1.92 billion for the quarter, a slowdown from the 5.9% increase seen in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings are expected to come in at $0.51 per share.

Analysts covering the company have become increasingly bearish heading into its financial results, with revenue estimates revised down nine times in the past 30 days. Fastenal has missed Wall Street revenue estimates four times in the past two years.

Looking at Fastenal’s competitors in the industrial distributor segment, only MSC Industrial has posted results so far. It met analysts’ revenue estimates, posting a 7.1% year-over-year sales decline. Shares rose 0.4% on the results.

Read our full analysis of MSC Industrial’s financial results here.

Stocks — especially those trading at higher multiples — had a strong end to 2023, but 2024 has seen periods of volatility. Mixed inflation signals have led to uncertainty about interest rate cuts, and while some industrial distributor stocks have fared a bit better, they haven’t been spared, with shares down an average of 3% over the past month. Fastenal is down 2.2% over the same time frame and is heading toward earnings with an average analyst price target of $65.10 (compared to the current share price of $63.08).

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, it should be obvious by now that generative AI is going to have a huge impact on how large corporations do business. While Nvidia and AMD are trading near all-time highs, we prefer lesser-known (but still profitable) semiconductor stocks benefiting from AI growth. Click here to access our free report on our favorite semiconductor growth story.