FAST vs. GWW, URI, TSCO, WSO, WCC, AIT, BECN, AL, MSM, and GATX
Should you be buying Fastenal stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Fastenal include W.W. Grainger (GWW), United Rentals (URI), Tractor Supply (TSCO), Watsco (WSO), WESCO International (WCC), Applied Industrial Technologies (AIT), Beacon Roofing Supply (BECN), Air Lease (AL), MSC Industrial Direct (MSM), and GATX (GATX).
Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST) and W.W. Grainger (NYSE:GWW) are both large-cap retail/wholesale companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, risk, earnings, institutional ownership, media sentiment, profitability, community ranking, dividends and analyst recommendations.
Fastenal has a beta of 1.02, indicating that its stock price is 2% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, W.W. Grainger has a beta of 1.16, indicating that its stock price is 16% more volatile than the S&P 500.
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.
Fastenal pays an annual dividend of $1.56 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.5%. W.W. Grainger pays an annual dividend of $8.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.9%. Fastenal pays out 77.2% 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 pays out 22.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend.
In the previous week, Fastenal had 7 more articles in the media than W.W. Grainger. MarketBeat recorded 15 mentions for Fastenal and 8 mentions for W.W. Grainger. W.W. Grainger's average media sentiment score of 1.57 beat Fastenal's score of 0.91 indicating that W.W. Grainger is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Fastenal currently has a consensus price target of $67.33, indicating a potential upside of 6.24%. W.W. Grainger has a consensus price target of $959.44, indicating a potential upside of 6.92%. Given W.W. Grainger's higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe W.W. Grainger is more favorable than Fastenal.
Fastenal has a net margin of 15.68% compared to W.W. Grainger's net margin of 10.94%. W.W. Grainger's return on equity of 54.31% beat Fastenal's return on equity.
W.W. Grainger received 125 more outperform votes than Fastenal when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 54.50% of users gave Fastenal an outperform vote while only 54.03% of users gave W.W. Grainger an outperform vote.
81.4% of Fastenal shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.7% of W.W. Grainger shares are held by institutional investors. 0.4% of Fastenal shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 9.5% of W.W. Grainger shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Summary
W.W. Grainger beats Fastenal on 11 of the 20 factors compared between the two stocks.
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This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding FAST and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
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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