Machinery equipment name Fastenal (FAST) is trading 0.05% higher at $78.74 at last check, adding to its 9% year-to-date gain. Today’s reprieve follows Tuesday’s steep 4.8% drop, which emerged despite the company’s 6.5% sales increase for April. Today’s modest gains could just be the beginning for a FAST recovery, however — if past is precedent.
Per Schaeffer’s Senior Quantitative Analyst Rocky White, Fastenal stock has come within one standard deviation of its 50-day moving average. FAST has moved near this trendline in at least eight of the last 10 trading days and spent 80% of the last six months above it.
Six signals have occurred in the past five years, with the stock seeing a one-month return of 3.8%, moving positive 83% of the time. Should this bounce occur, it could put the equity at $82.54, recovered from yesterday’s losses.
There is also ample room for bull notes, should the current pessimistic analyst sentiment begin to unwind. This is per the 11 of the 14 covering brokerage firms that sport a “hold” or worse recommendation.