Fastenal Fourth Quarter Earnings Sneak Peek

S&P 500 (NYSE:SPY) component Fastenal (NASDAQ:FAST) will unveil its latest earnings tomorrow, Thursday, January 17, 2013. Fastenal is a wholesale retailer of industrial and construction supplies in North America.

Fastenal Earnings Preview Cheat Sheet

Wall St. Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is for net income of 33 cents per share, a rise of 10% from the company’s actual earnings for the year-ago quarter. During the past three months, the average estimate has moved down from 34 cents. Between one and three months ago, the average estimate moved down. It has been unchanged at 33 cents during the last month. For the year, analysts are projecting profit of $1.42 per share, a rise of 17.4% from last year.

Past Earnings Performance: Last quarter, the company met expectations by reporting net income of 37 cents per share last quarter. In the previous second quarter, the company beat estimates by one cent.

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A Look Back: In the third quarter, profit rose 12.9% to $109.3 million (37 cents a share) from $96.8 million (33 cents a share) the year earlier, meeting analyst expectations. Revenue rose 10.4% to $802.6 million from $726.7 million.

Here’s how Fastenal traded following its last earnings report 3 months ago and leading up to its upcoming earnings report this week: