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Distributes fasteners, tools and industrial/safety supplies through branches and on-site vending machines at customer sites.
Distributes fasteners, tools and industrial/safety supplies through branches and on-site vending machines at customer sites.
Sells industrial and construction supplies at a markup, with its edge in service: branches near customers, and vending machines or staffed on-site stores inside the customer's plant that restock automatically. Managed-supply programs make customers sticky. It designs and distributes through its own trucks rather than relying on outside carriers.
Moat: narrow (distribution, installed base, switching costs). On-site vending machines and managed-inventory programs embed Fastenal deep inside customer operations.
Headquarters: Winona, Minnesota, USA · Founded: 1967 · Employees: 24,489
Size Fastenal (FAST) is a United States Industrials company (Wholesale Distributors) with a market value of $60.8B, the 215th largest of 3,117 United States companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at $52.99 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares gained 20.0%, against -1.9% for the median peer and -1.1% for the United States market (cap-weighted) — highest of 11 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 13.5% over the last twelve months (peer median +8.6%); the operating margin is 20.5% (peer median 6.7%).
Valuation It trades at 38.3× forward earnings against a peer median of 12.6× (most expensive of 11).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 14% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +8%, so the hurdle is +6 pp: the price needs faster growth than the company has been delivering — of companies that just grew 25–50% a year, 93.8% slowed down over the next four years.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 25.4 points above its cost of capital (8.1% WACC).
Short interest Short interest is 3.2% of the free float (15 Oct 2026).
Next results Next results expected around 19 Jan 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $9.08B | $8.20B | $7.55B | $7.35B | $6.98B |
| Revenue growth | — | +9% | +3% | +5% | — |
| Gross profit | $3.88B | $3.52B | $3.24B | $3.19B | $3.05B |
| EBITDA | $2.04B | $1.83B | $1.69B | $1.71B | $1.63B |
| Net income | $1.42B | $1.26B | $1.15B | $1.16B | $1.09B |
| Free cash flow | $1.18B | $1.05B | $947M | $1.26B | $767M |
| Capital expenditure | $257M | $245M | $226M | $173M | $174M |
| Total debt | $452M | $442M | $485M | $535M | $802M |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fastenal FAST | $60.8B | +20% | +14% | 21% | 38.3× | 14.2% |
| W. W. Grainger GWW | $67.9B | +17% | +9% | 17% | 28.2× | 11.9% |
| MSC Industrial Direct MSM | $6.33B | +9% | +6% | 9% | 20.1× | 9.0% |
| Applied Industrial Technologies AIT | $10.3B | -8% | +8% | 11% | 23.0× | 8.6% |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | FAST | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +5.0% | -9.8% | 4th highest of 11 |
| 6-month return | +20.0% | -1.9% | highest of 11 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -3.6% | -21.2% | highest of 11 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +13.5% | +8.6% | 5th highest of 11 |
| Operating margin | 20.5% | 6.7% | highest of 11 |
| Forward P/E | 38.3× | 12.6× | most expensive of 11 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 14.2% | 9.9% | 4th most demanding of 10 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +7.7% | +9.1% | 3rd lowest of 10 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +6.4 pp | +0.9 pp | 3rd most demanding of 10 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | +25.4 pp | +1.6 pp | 3rd highest of 11 |
| EV / EBITDA | 29.9× | 16.6× | most expensive of 7 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 0.1× | 1.9× | 2nd least indebted of 9 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fastenal FAST | United States | $60.8B | +20% | +14% | 21% | 38.3× | 14.2% | +7.7% |
| W. W. Grainger GWW | United States | $67.9B | +17% | +9% | 17% | 28.2× | 11.9% | +8.7% |
| Sumitomo 8053.T | Japan | $47.7B | +9% | +6% | 5% | 11.3× | 15.2% | +9.5% |
| Glencore GLEN.L | United Kingdom | $78.0B | -14% | +27% | 2% | 10.9× | n/a | n/a |
| Ferguson Enterprises FERG | United States | $45.2B | -3% | +8% | 10% | 19.4× | 9.9% | +9.1% |
| CMOC 603993.SS | China | $41.0B | -29% | +32% | 20% | 8.7× | -5.4% | +12.8% |
| Toyota Tsusho 8015.T | Japan | $36.8B | +2% | +25% | 5% | 13.0× | 9.8% | +12.9% |
| Mitsubishi 8058.T | Japan | $105B | -1% | +16% | 3% | 14.8× | 18.8% | +8.0% |
| Kyocera 6971.T | Japan | $23.4B | +3% | +7% | 6% | 22.5× | 21.3% | +6.3% |
| Aluminum Corporation of China 601600.SS | China | $20.7B | -26% | +5% | 18% | 6.7× | -16.2% | +5.3% |
| Rongsheng Petrochemical 002493.SZ | China | $17.9B | -14% | -11% | 8% | 12.2× | -4.4% | +22.1% |