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Fastenal (FAST) Competitors

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$74.78 -0.36 (-0.48%)
Closing price 02/21/2025 04:00 PM Eastern
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$75.00 +0.22 (+0.30%)
As of 02/21/2025 06:34 PM Eastern
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FAST vs. GWW, URI, WSO, AIT, WCC, BECN, GATX, AL, RUSHA, and MSM

Should you be buying Fastenal stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Fastenal include W.W. Grainger (GWW), United Rentals (URI), Watsco (WSO), Applied Industrial Technologies (AIT), WESCO International (WCC), Beacon Roofing Supply (BECN), GATX (GATX), Air Lease (AL), Rush Enterprises (RUSHA), and MSC Industrial Direct (MSM). These companies are all part of the "trading companies & distributors" industry.

Fastenal vs.

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

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 $1.72 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.3%. W.W. Grainger pays out 21.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Fastenal pays out 85.6% 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.

In the previous week, W.W. Grainger had 4 more articles in the media than Fastenal. MarketBeat recorded 26 mentions for W.W. Grainger and 22 mentions for Fastenal. Fastenal's average media sentiment score of 1.49 beat W.W. Grainger's score of 1.35 indicating that Fastenal is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company Very Positive Positive Neutral Negative Very Negative Overall Sentiment
W.W. Grainger
21 Very Positive mention(s)
1 Positive mention(s)
4 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive
Fastenal
20 Very Positive mention(s)
2 Positive mention(s)
0 Neutral mention(s)
0 Negative mention(s)
0 Very Negative mention(s)
Positive

W.W. Grainger received 125 more outperform votes than Fastenal when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 53.70% of users gave Fastenal an outperform vote while only 53.37% of users gave W.W. Grainger an outperform vote.

CompanyUnderperformOutperform
W.W. GraingerOutperform Votes
546
53.37%
Underperform Votes
477
46.63%
FastenalOutperform Votes
421
53.70%
Underperform Votes
363
46.30%

W.W. Grainger has a beta of 1.17, suggesting that its share price is 17% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Fastenal has a beta of 1.02, suggesting that its share price is 2% more volatile than the S&P 500.

W.W. Grainger presently has a consensus target price of $1,148.56, suggesting a potential upside of 13.94%. Fastenal has a consensus target price of $76.91, suggesting a potential upside of 2.85%. Given W.W. Grainger's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe W.W. Grainger is more favorable than Fastenal.

Company Sell Ratings Hold Ratings Buy Ratings Strong Buy Ratings Rating Score
W.W. Grainger
1 Sell rating(s)
9 Hold rating(s)
2 Buy rating(s)
1 Strong Buy rating(s)
2.23
Fastenal
2 Sell rating(s)
8 Hold rating(s)
1 Buy rating(s)
0 Strong Buy rating(s)
1.91

80.7% of W.W. Grainger shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 81.4% of Fastenal shares are owned by institutional investors. 9.5% of W.W. Grainger shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.4% of Fastenal shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

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.

CompanyGross RevenuePrice/Sales RatioNet IncomeEarnings Per SharePrice/Earnings Ratio
W.W. Grainger$17.17B2.86$1.91B$38.7126.04
Fastenal$7.55B5.68$1.15B$2.0137.20

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. Grainger11.12% 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.

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New MarketBeat Followers Over Time

This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding {thisCompany.Symbol} and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
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Media Sentiment Over Time

This chart shows the average media sentiment of NASDAQ and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
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FAST vs. The Competition

MetricFastenalBuilding materials, hardware, garden supply & mobile home dealers IndustryRetail SectorNASDAQ Exchange
Market Cap$42.88B$47.79B$25.90B$8.98B
Dividend Yield2.28%1.94%172.57%3.85%
P/E Ratio37.2044.9423.0918.82
Price / Sales5.682.813.7380.76
Price / Cash32.6820.7721.2137.47
Price / Book11.8514.925.834.64
Net Income$1.15B$645.45M$770.12M$245.69M
7 Day PerformanceN/A-3.52%-3.05%-2.63%
1 Month Performance-1.72%-5.36%-1.23%-2.37%
1 Year Performance6.33%-13.16%8.53%13.65%

Fastenal Competitors List

CompanyMarketRankShare PriceAnalysts' Price Target1Y Price PerformanceMarket CapRevenueP/E RatioEmployee CountIndicator(s)
FAST
Fastenal
3.9599 of 5 stars
$74.78
-0.5%
$76.91
+2.8%
+6.3%$42.88B$7.55B37.2023,702Positive News
GWW
W.W. Grainger
4.2423 of 5 stars
$1,027.68
0.0%
$1,148.56
+11.8%
+7.1%$50.05B$17.17B26.5526,000Positive News
URI
United Rentals
4.8948 of 5 stars
$741.10
+1.6%
$814.08
+9.8%
+1.8%$48.40B$15.35B19.1327,900Analyst Forecast
Analyst Revision
Positive News
WSO
Watsco
3.7197 of 5 stars
$485.21
+1.8%
$488.33
+0.6%
+31.1%$19.59B$7.28B37.507,425Earnings Report
Analyst Forecast
Analyst Revision
Positive News
High Trading Volume
AIT
Applied Industrial Technologies
4.4552 of 5 stars
$265.11
+0.7%
$291.43
+9.9%
+31.9%$10.17B$4.48B26.866,500Analyst Revision
News Coverage
WCC
WESCO International
3.6827 of 5 stars
$196.84
+1.6%
$217.63
+10.6%
+28.4%$9.65B$22.39B15.7620,000Analyst Forecast
BECN
Beacon Roofing Supply
3.3837 of 5 stars
$119.30
+0.1%
$120.17
+0.7%
+36.8%$7.38B$9.12B20.398,063Upcoming Earnings
Analyst Forecast
GATX
GATX
2.4358 of 5 stars
$164.99
-0.2%
$161.00
-2.4%
+27.2%$5.86B$1.59B21.232,020
AL
Air Lease
4.7184 of 5 stars
$49.46
+6.7%
$57.60
+16.5%
+19.6%$5.51B$2.68B11.27150Analyst Forecast
Gap Up
RUSHA
Rush Enterprises
4.6675 of 5 stars
$60.47
+1.6%
$69.00
+14.1%
+22.4%$4.78B$7.93B16.047,860Earnings Report
Dividend Announcement
Analyst Forecast
Insider Trade
News Coverage
MSM
MSC Industrial Direct
3.2835 of 5 stars
$81.42
-0.7%
$83.80
+2.9%
-19.4%$4.55B$3.82B19.437,423

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This page (NASDAQ:FAST) was last updated on 2/22/2025 by MarketBeat.com Staff
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