Fastenal Co's Free Cash Flow per Share for the
three
months ended in Mar. 2024 was $0.50.
Its Free Cash Flow per Share for the trailing twelve months (TTM) ended in Mar. 2024 was $2.08.
During the past 12 months, the average Free Cash Flow per Share Growth Rate of Fastenal Co was 28.30% per year.
During the past 3 years, the average Free Cash Flow per Share Growth Rate was 10.70% per year.
During the past 5 years, the average Free Cash Flow per Share Growth Rate was 15.30% per year.
During the past 10 years, the average Free Cash Flow per Share Growth Rate was 16.30% per year.
Please click Growth Rate Calculation Example (GuruFocus) to see how GuruFocus calculates Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT)'s revenue growth rate. You can apply the same method to get the FCF Growth Rate using Free Cash Flow per Share data.
The historical rank and industry rank for Fastenal Co's Free Cash Flow per Share or its related term are showing as below:
FAST'
s 3-Year FCF Growth Rate Range Over the Past 10 Years
Min: -125.7 Med: 13.2 Max: 229.4
Current: 10.7
During the past 13 years, Fastenal Co's highest 3-Year average Free Cash Flow per Share Growth Rate was 229.40% per year. The lowest was -125.70% per year. And the median was 13.20% per year.
FAST's 3-Year FCF Growth Rate is ranked better than 53% of 100
companies
in the Industrial Distribution industry
Industry Median: 7.5
vs FAST: 10.70
Fastenal Co Free Cash Flow per Share Historical Data
The historical data trend for Fastenal Co's Free Cash Flow per Share can be seen below:
* For Operating Data section: All numbers are indicated by the unit behind each term and all currency related amount are in USD. * For other sections: All numbers are in millions except for per share data, ratio, and percentage. All currency related amount are indicated in the company's associated stock exchange currency.
Competitive Comparison of Fastenal Co's Free Cash Flow per Share
For the Industrial Distribution subindustry, Fastenal Co's Price-to-Free-Cash-Flow, along with its competitors' market caps and Price-to-Free-Cash-Flow data, can be viewed below:
* Competitive companies are chosen from companies within the same industry, with headquarter located in same country, with closest market capitalization; x-axis shows the market cap, and y-axis shows the term value; the bigger the dot, the larger the market cap. Note that "N/A" values will not show up in the chart.
Fastenal Co's Price-to-Free-Cash-Flow Distribution in the Industrial Distribution Industry
For the Industrial Distribution industry and Industrials sector, Fastenal Co's Price-to-Free-Cash-Flow distribution charts can be found below:
* The bar in red indicates where Fastenal Co's Price-to-Free-Cash-Flow falls into.
Fastenal Co Free Cash Flow per Share Calculation
Free Cashflow per Share is the amount of Free Cashflow per outstanding share of the company's stock.
Free Cash Flow is considered one of the most important parameters to measure a company's earnings power by value investors because it is not subject to estimates of Depreciation, Depletion and Amortization (DDA). However, when we look at the Free Cash Flow, we should look from a long term perspective, because any year's Free Cash Flow can be drastically affected by the spending on Property, Plant, & Equipment (PPE) of the business in that year. Over the long term, Free Cash Flow should give pretty good picture on the real earnings power of the company.
Note: GuruFocus does not calculate Free Cash Flow Per Share when Capital Expenditure is 0.
Fastenal Co's Free Cash Flow Per Share for the fiscal year that ended in Dec. 2023 is calculated as
Free Cash Flow per Share for the trailing twelve months (TTM) ended in Mar. 2024 adds up the quarterly data reported by the company within the most recent 12 months, which was $2.08
* For Operating Data section: All numbers are indicated by the unit behind each term and all currency related amount are in USD. * For other sections: All numbers are in millions except for per share data, ratio, and percentage. All currency related amount are indicated in the company's associated stock exchange currency.
Fastenal Co (NAS:FAST) Free Cash Flow per Share Explanation
Free Cash Flow is very close to Warren Buffett's definition of Owner's Earnings, except that in Warren Buffett's Owner's Earnings, the spending for Property, Plant, and Equipment is only for maintenance (replacement), while in the Free Cash Flow calculation, the cost of new Property, Plant, and Equipment due to business expansion is also deducted. There, Free Cash Flow is more conservative than Owner's Earnings.
In Don Yacktman's calculation of forward rate of return, he uses Free Cash Flow for the calculation. Yacktman explained the forward rate of return concept in detail in his interview with GuruFocus. Yacktman defines forward rate of return as the normalized free cash flow yield plus real growth plus inflation.
This is what Yacktman said in his March 2012 interview - when the S&P 500 was at 1400:
If the business is stable, this calculation is fairly straightforward. For instance, on the S&P 500 we would normalize earnings. We would then calculate what percentage of those earnings are not reinvested in the underlying businesses and are therefore free. Historically, for the S&P 500, this has been just under 50% of earnings. Currently, we expect the S&P to earn about 70 on a normalized basis, a number which is far below reported earnings due to our adjusting for record high profit margins. $70 X ½ / 1400 gives you a normalized free cash flow yield of approximately 2.5%.
The historical real growth rate of the S&P 500 (companies) is about 1.5%. Assuming an inflation rate of 2.5%, the forward rate of return on an investment in the S&P 500 is about 6.5% today (2.5% free cash flow yield plus 1.5% real growth plus 2.5% inflation).
For the growth part of the Forward Rate of Return calculation, GuruFocus uses the 5-year average growth rate of EBITDA per share as the growth rate, and the growth rate is always capped at 20%. For the Free Cash Flow we use per share data averaged over seven years. The reason we use seven years is because research shows that seven years is the length of the typical business cycle.
* For Operating Data section: All numbers are indicated by the unit behind each term and all currency related amount are in USD. * For other sections: All numbers are in millions except for per share data, ratio, and percentage. All currency related amount are indicated in the company's associated stock exchange currency.
Be Aware
Free Cash Flow within a report period can be affected by management's decisions of capital spending. Therefore, it is important to look at long term when it comes to Free Cash Flow.
Fastenal Co Free Cash Flow per Share Related Terms
Thank you for viewing the detailed overview of Fastenal Co's Free Cash Flow per Share provided by GuruFocus.com. Please click on the following links to see related term pages.
Fastenal opened its first fastener store in 1967 in Winona, Minnesota. Since then, Fastenal has greatly expanded its footprint as well as its products and services. Today, Fastenal serves its 400,000 active customers through approximately 1,600 branches, over 1,700 on-site locations, and 14 distribution centers. Since 1993, the company has added other product categories, but fasteners remain its largest category at about 30%-35% of sales. Fastenal also offers customers supply-chain solutions, such as vending and vendor-managed inventory.
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