Fastenal (FAST) Competitors

W.W. Grainger (NYSE:GWW) and Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST) are both large-cap industrials companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their community ranking, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, dividends, risk, media sentiment, analyst recommendations and earnings.

Is GWW or FAST a better dividend stock?

W.W. Grainger pays an annual dividend of $8.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.8%. Fastenal pays an annual dividend of $1.76 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.2%. W.W. Grainger pays out 21.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Fastenal pays out 87.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. W.W. Grainger has raised its dividend for 54 consecutive years and Fastenal has raised its dividend for 26 consecutive years.

Which has higher earnings and valuation, GWW or FAST?

W.W. Grainger has higher revenue and earnings than Fastenal. W.W. Grainger is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Fastenal, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
W.W. Grainger	$17.17B	2.82	$1.91B	$38.71	25.95
Fastenal	$7.55B	6.20	$1.15B	$2.01	40.58

Do insiders & institutionals believe in GWW or FAST?

80.7% of W.W. Grainger shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 81.4% of Fastenal shares are held by institutional investors. 6.1% of W.W. Grainger shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of Fastenal shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Do analysts rate GWW or FAST?

W.W. Grainger presently has a consensus price target of $1,130.89, suggesting a potential upside of 12.58%. Fastenal has a consensus price target of $77.45, suggesting a potential downside of 5.03%. Given W.W. Grainger's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe W.W. Grainger is more favorable than Fastenal.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
W.W. Grainger	2 Sell rating(s)	8 Hold rating(s)	3 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.21
Fastenal	1 Sell rating(s)	9 Hold rating(s)	2 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.08

Does the media favor GWW or FAST?

In the previous week, Fastenal had 38 more articles in the media than W.W. Grainger. MarketBeat recorded 72 mentions for Fastenal and 34 mentions for W.W. Grainger. W.W. Grainger's average media sentiment score of 1.21 beat Fastenal's score of 0.88 indicating that W.W. Grainger is being referred to more favorably in the media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
W.W. Grainger	25 Very Positive mention(s)	0 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	0 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Fastenal	32 Very Positive mention(s)	6 Positive mention(s)	21 Neutral mention(s)	1 Negative mention(s)	2 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has more risk & volatility, GWW or FAST?

W.W. Grainger has a beta of 1.2, suggesting that its stock price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Fastenal has a beta of 1.05, suggesting that its stock price is 5% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Does the MarketBeat Community favor GWW or FAST?

W.W. Grainger received 125 more outperform votes than Fastenal when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 53.62% of users gave Fastenal an outperform vote while only 53.37% of users gave W.W. Grainger an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
W.W. Grainger	Outperform Votes 547 53.37%	Underperform Votes 478 46.63%
Fastenal	Outperform Votes 422 53.62%	Underperform Votes 365 46.38%

Is GWW or FAST more profitable?

Fastenal has a net margin of 15.25% compared to W.W. Grainger's net margin of 11.12%. W.W. Grainger's return on equity of 52.43% beat Fastenal's return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
W.W. Grainger	11.12%	52.43%	22.15%
Fastenal	15.25%	32.55%	24.78%

Summary

W.W. Grainger beats Fastenal on 14 of the 22 factors compared between the two stocks.