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Key Takeaways
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Fastenal shares stumbled in premarket trading Friday as the company's fourth-quarter results narrowly missed analysts' estimates.
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Sales rose 3.7% year-over-year, but stripping out an extra selling day compared with 2023, net daily sales increased 2.1%. Profit declined 1.6%.
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The company said it continued to see a "soft manufacturing environment" in the quarter, as some of its factory customers cut production more than expected around the holidays.
Shares of Fastenal (FAST) stumbled in premarket trading Friday after the industrial parts company's fourth-quarter results came in short of what analysts had expected.
Fastenal reported $262.1 million in net income, or $0.46 per share, on $1.82 billion in sales, all below analysts' consensus estimates compiled by Visible Alpha.
Sales rose 3.7% year-over-year, but stripping out an extra selling day compared with 2023, net daily sales increased 2.1%. Profit declined 1.6%.
'Soft Manufacturing Environment,' Holiday Factory Closures Hit Sales
Fastenal said its sales growth was slow due to a "continuation of the soft manufacturing environment" present for much of 2024. Sales also were affected by more customers performing "unusually sharp production cuts" in late December as factories closed for the holidays, and foreign exchange rates having a negative impact compared with a positive one the prior year.
Fastenal shares were down nearly 5% less than an hour before the opening bell. They were up about 18% over the past 12 months through Thursday's close.
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