Fastenal Co. (NASDAQ: FAST) reported Tuesday that its first quarter net income rose 42.1% to $79 million, or 54 cents per share, from $56 million, or 38 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter. Revenue increased 23% to $641 million from $521 million. Analysts on average expected the company to report earnings of 51 cents per share on revenue of $629.
The management said that the improvement in 2010, and into 2011, generally continues the trend the company saw in the latter half of 2009. According to management, several additional factors positively impacted its sales growth in the first quarter: (1) the strengthening Canadian dollar (when compared to the United States dollar) added approximately 0.7 percentage points to our daily sales growth in both 2011 and 2010 and (2) our Holo-Krome business, which we acquired in December 2009, added approximately 0.5 percentage points to our daily sales growth in 2010, as there were no comparable sales in 2009.
Fastenal Co. operates as a wholesaler and retailer of industrial and construction supplies.
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