What Happened?
Shares of industrial supplier Fastenal (NASDAQ: FAST) jumped 7% in the afternoon session after the company reported strong first quarter 2025 results which blew past analysts' sales volume expectations. Sales, EBITDA, and EPS were also in line with expectations, which showed the company was executing as expected. Sales growth continued to improve despite broader business activity remaining soft, helped by a bigger base of customers spending more each month. Overall, we think this was a decent quarter.
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What The Market Is Telling Us
Fastenal’s shares are not very volatile and have only had 3 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful, although it might not be something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
Fastenal is up 13.3% since the beginning of the year, and at $80.61 per share, it is trading close to its 52-week high of $84.35 from November 2024. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Fastenal’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $2,496.
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