Fastenal Q2 Profit Meets View

(RTTNews) - Industrial and construction supplies provider Fastenal Co. (FAST) Wednesday reported a higher profit for the second quarter that matched Street estimates, even as revenue fell short of expectations.

Net earnings rose to $121 million from $112.31 million. Earnings per share increased to $0.41 from $0.38. On average, 12 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.41 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Net sales rose 5.3 percent to $847.6 million from $804.9 million in the prior year. Wall Street expected revenues of $857.13 million.

Business days remained unchanged from last year at 64. Daily sales, however, rose 5.3 percent to $13.24 million.

Gross profit was 52.2 percent compared to 51.6 percent last year.

The company had 2,677 stores open as of June 30. During the first six months of 2013, Fastenal opened 33 new stores, up 1.2 percent since December 2012.

Fastenal did not purchase any stock in the first half of 2013. The firm currently has authority to purchase up to 1.8 million shares of common stock.

The company declared the third-quarter dividend on July 9. It is payable on August 23 to shareholders of record at the close of business on July 26.

For the first half of the year, net earnings advanced to $230.06 million from $212.5 million. Net sales improved to $1.65 billion from $1.57 billion, primarily due to higher unit sales. The higher unit sales were due mainly to increases in sales at older store locations.

According to the company, the sales growth was held back partially by the global economic uncertainty combined with economic policy uncertainty in the U.S. It was also impacted by the loss of one business day compared to the prior year.

FAST closed at $47.10 on Tuesday.