Fastenal Company FAST released its sales figures for the month of November.
November net sales rose 4.1% year over year to $298.2 million. Daily sales declined 1.1% to $14.9 million. Unfavorable currency impacted sales by 1.4% in the month, worse than the impact of 1.2% last month.
The November sales growth rate was softer than that of October. The daily sales decline of 1.1% in November was also worse than the 0.8% decline in Oct 2015.
This industrial and construction supplies wholesale distributor serves customers in the manufacturing as well as non-residential construction markets. Notably, both the end markets witnessed decelerating growth in the month.
Daily sales to manufacturing customers declined 1.6%, wider than the 0.7% decrease in October.
Daily sales to non-residential construction customers (representing 20% to 25% of revenues) also decreased 5.1%, worse than the 4.7% decline recorded in October.
Though Fastenal’s earnings per share and revenues increased year over year in the first three quarters of 2015, revenues softened significantly during the period. This was primarily due to weakness in the industrial fasteners business. Revenues were also hurt by lower sales to customers in the oil & gas industry, a stronger U.S. dollar, softness in the Canadian business and overall weakness in the industrial economy.
Fastenal carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Stocks to Consider
Some better-ranked stocks in the broader building sector include Tecnoglass Inc. TGLS, Builders FirstSource, Inc. BLDR and The Home Depot, Inc. HD. While Tecnoglass sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), Builders FirstSource and The Home Depot hold a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
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