Industrial and construction supply giant Fastenal on Wednesday reported sharply higher sales in its latest fiscal quarter.
But the numbers reportedly fell below what analysts expected for the Winona, Minnesota, distributor.
The company reported $1.78 billion in net sales in the latest reporting period, up 18% from the $1.5 billion reported in the second quarter of last year but slightly behind what Wall Street had projected. Shares of Fastenal stock fell more than 5% in premarket trading Wednesday morning.
The company’s net earnings, meanwhile, matched expectations at just more than $287 million, up nearly 20% from the same period in 2021.
Fastenal officials said the company saw continued growth in demand for manufacturing and construction equipment. The company said daily sales to manufacturing customers were up 23% in the latest quarter, while sales to non-residential construction customers climbed nearly 11% per day over that span.
Sales of fasteners jumped more than 21% in the most recent window; sales of the company’s safety products climbed nearly 14%. All other products increased daily sales by 17%.
The company said product pricing had an overall impact of 660 to 690 basis points compared to the previous second fiscal quarter, which officials attributed to efforts to mitigate the impact of inflation. Foreign exchange rates hampered sales by some 50 basis points, while costs for fuel, transportation services, plastics and key metals were “elevated but stable.”
“We did not take any broad price increases in the second quarter of 2022, but benefited from carryover from actions taken in the first quarter of 2022, the timing of opportunities with national account contracts, and tactical, SKU-level adjustments,” the company said in a statement.
Fastenal said it opened two new branches in the latest quarter and closed 25 — which the company attributed to “normal churn” — while it closed 20 on-site locations and activated 81 new ones. The company’s total full-time employee headcount increased by more than 1,200 in the latest three-month window.
