Fastenal's (FAST) Average Daily Sales Increase 17.6% in May

Fastenal Company FAST recently released its May sales report, wherein average daily sales  (“ADS”) grew 17.6% to $28.1 million, slightly moderating sequentially. In April 2022, daily sales registered 20.3% growth, whereas the same had declined 3.2% in May 2021.

Daily sales, on a constant currency basis, were up 18.3% last month compared with 20.5% in April 2022. Issues like price inflation, supply-chain challenges and shortage of labor are negatively impacting its growth rate. Nonetheless, Fastenal continues to navigate these challenges thanks to healthy end-market demand.

End-Market Perspective, Product Lines & Customers

From an end-market perspective, manufacturing sales improved 22.4% for the month compared with 18.9% growth a year ago. Non-residential construction grew 10.7% compared with a 4.4% rise reported in May 2021. The average daily sales growth rate in non-residential and manufacturing end markets slipped sequentially in May 2022.

Fastenal derives sales from Fasteners, Safety and other product lines. Fasteners (representing about one-third of total sales) witnessed 20% growth in sales last month compared with 28.2% increase registered in the year-ago period. On a monthly basis, Fasteners’ sales were up 25.2% in March, 25.5% in April and 20% in May this year. Safety products improved 15.6% in May against the 44.1% decline in the year-ago period. Safety categories improved 16.7% in April 2022.

In terms of customer/channel, National account daily sales growth advanced 22% last month from a year ago, given that 87% of the top 100 accounts and 71.9% of public branches are expanding. Also, non-national accounts were up 12% year over year for the month. In the year-ago period, daily sales in non-national accounts were down 2% year over year.

Regionally, daily sales growth in the United States and Canada/Mexico were 19.1% and 14.7%, respectively, last month. Daily sales in rest of the world, however, declined 5.8%.
 

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Shares of the company have outperformed the industry so far this year. Although daily sales have moderated sequentially on account of a potentially slower macro environment, we believe this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company is well positioned to navigate through these challenges given end-market demand, cost-control efforts, and aggressive investment to increase on-site locations, vending machines and e-commerce business. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

3 Other Retail-Wholesale Stocks Hogging the Limelight

Some other top-ranked stocks, which warrant a look in the Zacks Retail-Wholesale sector are Beacon Roofing Supply, Inc. BECN, Tecnoglass Inc. TGLS and BBQ Holdings, Inc. BBQ.

Beacon Roofing Supply carries a Zacks Rank #2. Shares of the company have risen 10.6% year to date.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for BECN’s 2022 sales and EPS suggests growth of 23.5% and 34.2%, respectively, from the year-ago period’s levels.

Tecnoglass carries a Zacks Rank #2. Shares of the company have lost 19% year to date.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for TGLS’ 2022 sales and EPS suggests growth of 21.3% and 28.7%, respectively, from the year-ago period’s levels.

BBQ Holdings also carries a Zacks Rank #2. Shares of the company have decreased 21.9% year to date.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for BBQ Holdings’ 2022 sales and EPS suggests growth of 46.1% and 67.6%, respectively, from the year-ago period’s levels.

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