Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board Decreases Stock Holdings in Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST)

Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board lowered its stake in shares of Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST - Free Report) by 56.5% in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 21,786 shares of the company's stock after selling 28,252 shares during the quarter. Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board's holdings in Fastenal were worth $1,556,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Commerce Bank raised its stake in shares of Fastenal by 50.4% during the third quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 78,285 shares of the company's stock valued at $5,591,000 after purchasing an additional 26,224 shares in the last quarter. Segall Bryant & Hamill LLC acquired a new position in Fastenal in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $857,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Fastenal by 1.8% during the third quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 369,267 shares of the company's stock worth $26,373,000 after acquiring an additional 6,488 shares in the last quarter. B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG bought a new stake in Fastenal in the third quarter worth approximately $9,132,000. Finally, Prospera Financial Services Inc increased its holdings in shares of Fastenal by 9.6% during the 3rd quarter. Prospera Financial Services Inc now owns 3,584 shares of the company's stock valued at $256,000 after acquiring an additional 314 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 81.38% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP Charles S. Miller sold 23,480 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.92, for a total value of $1,970,441.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, VP John Lewis Soderberg sold 488 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 14th. The stock was 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. Insiders sold 208,289 shares of company stock worth $16,123,438 in the last quarter. 0.41% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on FAST. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Fastenal from $57.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Fastenal from $67.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Stephens increased their target price on Fastenal from $56.00 to $75.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Monday, October 14th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus restated a "buy" rating and issued a $86.00 price objective (up previously from $80.00) on shares of Fastenal in a research report on Monday, October 14th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $74.80.

Fastenal Trading Up 0.9 %

FAST traded up $0.72 during trading on Thursday, hitting $82.54. The company's stock had a trading volume of 352,646 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,288,977. The company has a quick ratio of 2.29, a current ratio of 4.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.03. Fastenal has a twelve month low of $59.47 and a twelve month high of $84.88. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $75.74 and its 200-day moving average price is $69.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $47.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.71, a PEG ratio of 4.78 and a beta of 0.99.

Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, October 11th. The company reported $0.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.51 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $1.91 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.90 billion. Fastenal had a net margin of 15.44% and a return on equity of 33.30%. The firm's revenue was up 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.52 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Fastenal will post 2.03 EPS for the current year.

Fastenal Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 25th will be given a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 25th. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.89%. Fastenal's payout ratio is 77.61%.

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.