Fastenal Q4 Profit Rises, Meets View - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Fastenal Co. (FAST) on Friday reported a 5.9 percent increase in net earnings for the fourth quarter to $178.7 million from $168.8 million in the year-ago period. Earnings per share increased 5.4 percent to $0.31 from $0.29 last year.

The company noted that adjusting for the discrete tax item that adversely affected net earnings in the year-ago period, net earnings and net earnings per share in the latest quarter would have grown by 4.0 percent and 3.4 percent, respectively.

Net sales for the quarter increased 3.7 percent to $1.28 billion from $1.23 billion in the year-ago period.

The increase was driven by higher unit sales related to the company's growth drivers, most notably contribution from industrial vending and onsite locations, compared to the prior-year period.

On average, analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected the company to report earnings of $0.31 per share for the quarter on revenues of $1.29 billion. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.