Is the business good?
How good a business is FAST?
Fastenal earns 35% on the capital it employs against a 9.0% cost of capital, so the business is worth more the bigger it gets.
35%
Return on invested capital · cost of capital 9.0% · 26 points above what the capital costs: growth creates value
- Operating margin
- 20%
Operating margin · Industrial Distribution median 8.5% · 12 months to Q2 2026
- Cash conversion
- 0.85×
Cash conversion · 0.74× a year ago · some of the reported profit has not turned into cash yet
- Share count, year on year
- +0.02%
Share count, year on year · flat: no meaningful dilution
| Year | Operating margin |
|---|---|
| FY2020 | 20% |
| FY2021 | 20% |
| FY2022 | 21% |
| FY2023 | 21% |
| FY2024 | 20% |
| FY2025 | 20% |
Details›
- Gross margin12 months to Q2 2026
- 45%
- Operating margin12 months to Q2 2026
- 20%
- Net margin12 months to Q2 2026
- 15%
- Free cash flow margin
- 13%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $8.75B
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- $1.16B
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- $1.35B
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- 35%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion from the cash flow statement.
Industrial Distribution
Ranks #3 of 17 by Smart Score