Fastenal Co. Files 2023 Annual Report on Form 10-K

TL;DR

<b>Fastenal Co. has submitted its 2023 10-K annual report detailing financial performance and business operations.</b>

AI Summary

FASTENAL CO (FAST) filed a Annual Report (10-K) with the SEC on February 6, 2024. Fastenal Co. filed its 10-K report for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2023. The filing covers the period from January 1, 2023, to December 31, 2023. The company's principal business address is 2001 Theurer Blvd, Winona, MN 55987. Fastenal Co. is incorporated in Minnesota (MN). The filing includes financial data for the fiscal years 2023, 2022, and 2021.

Why It Matters

For investors and stakeholders tracking FASTENAL CO, this filing contains several important signals. This 10-K filing provides a comprehensive overview of Fastenal's financial health and operational performance for the fiscal year 2023, crucial for investors assessing the company's stability and growth prospects. The detailed financial statements and risk factors within the report offer insights into the company's strategies, market position, and potential challenges, aiding stakeholders in making informed investment decisions.

Risk Assessment

Risk Level: low — FASTENAL CO shows low risk based on this filing. The filing is a standard annual report (10-K) and does not contain any immediate red flags or unusual disclosures, indicating a low level of immediate risk from this specific filing.

Analyst Insight

Review the detailed financial statements and management discussion within the 10-K to understand Fastenal's performance drivers and future outlook.

Key Numbers

• 2023-12-31 — Fiscal Year End (Conformed period of report)
• 2024-02-06 — Filing Date (As of date)
• 0000815556 — Central Index Key (Filer's unique identifier)
• 5200 — SIC Code (Standard Industrial Classification)

Key Players & Entities

• FASTENAL CO (company) — Filer name
• 20231231 (date) — Fiscal year end
• 20240206 (date) — Filing date
• 2001 THEURER BLVD (address) — Business address
• WINONA (location) — City in business address
• MN (location) — State of incorporation and business address
• 55987 (postal_code) — ZIP code
• 1934 Act (regulation) — SEC Act

FAQ

Industry Context

Fastenal Co. operates within the wholesale trade sector, specifically focusing on industrial and construction supplies.

Regulatory Implications

The filing is made under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, requiring public companies to disclose material information to investors.

What Investors Should Do

1. Analyze the financial statements for revenue trends, profitability, and balance sheet health.
2. Review the Management's Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) section for strategic insights and risk assessments.
3. Examine any disclosed risk factors to understand potential challenges facing the company.

Key Dates

• 2023-12-31: Fiscal Year End — Marks the end of the reporting period for the 10-K.
• 2024-02-06: Filing Date — Date the 10-K report was officially submitted to the SEC.

Year-Over-Year Comparison

This is the initial filing analyzed, so no comparison to a previous filing is available.

Filing Documents

• fast-20231231.htm (10-K) — 2143KB
• fast1231202310-kexhibit3_2.htm (EX-3.2) — 97KB
• fast1231202310-kexhibit042.htm (EX-4.2) — 20KB
• fast1231202310-kexhibit101.htm (EX-10.1) — 40KB
• fast12312023exhibit102.htm (EX-10.2) — 49KB
• fast1231202310-kexhibit21.htm (EX-21) — 38KB
• fast1231202310-kexhibit23.htm (EX-23) — 2KB
• fast1231202310-kexhibit31.htm (EX-31) — 21KB
• fast1231202310-kexhibit32.htm (EX-32) — 6KB
• fast1231202310-kexhibit97.htm (EX-97) — 25KB
• fast-20231231_g1.jpg (GRAPHIC) — 116KB
• fast-20231231_g2.jpg (GRAPHIC) — 110KB
• fast-20231231_g3.jpg (GRAPHIC) — 114KB
• 0000815556-24-000009.txt (&nbsp;) — 9319KB
• fast-20231231.xsd (EX-101.SCH) — 42KB
• fast-20231231_cal.xml (EX-101.CAL) — 83KB
• fast-20231231_def.xml (EX-101.DEF) — 174KB
• fast-20231231_lab.xml (EX-101.LAB) — 660KB
• fast-20231231_pre.xml (EX-101.PRE) — 418KB
• fast-20231231_htm.xml (XML) — 1178KB

Business

Business 2 Item 1A.

Risk Factors

Risk Factors 15 Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments 22 Item 1C. Cybersecurity 23 Item 2.

Properties

Properties 25 Item 3.

Legal Proceedings

Legal Proceedings 26 Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures 26 PART II Item 5. Market for Registrant's Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters, and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities 27 Item 6. Reserved 28 Item 7.

Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations 29 Item 7A.

Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk

Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk 50 Item 8.

Financial Statements and Supplementary Data

Financial Statements and Supplementary Data 51 Item 9. Changes in and Disagreements With Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure 70 Item 9A.

Controls and Procedures

Controls and Procedures 70 Item 9B. Other Information 71 Item 9C. Disclosure Regarding Foreign Jurisdictions that Prevent Inspections 71 PART III Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers, and Corporate Governance 71 Item 11.

Executive Compensation

Executive Compensation 73 Item 12.

Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters

Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters 73 Item 13. Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence 74 Item 14. Principal Accountant Fees and Services 74 PART IV Item 15. Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules 75 Item 16. Form 10-K Summary 77

Signatures

Signatures 78 Table of Contents DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE Portions of our Proxy Statement relating to our 2024 annual meeting of shareholders (Proxy Statement) are incorporated by reference into Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K where indicated. Our Proxy Statement will be filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission within 120 days after the end of the fiscal year to which this report relates.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS Certain statements contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, or in other reports of the company and other written and oral statements made from time to time by the company, do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. As such, they are considered 'forward-looking statements' that provide current expectations or forecasts of future events. These forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements can be identified by the use of terminology such as anticipate, believe, should, estimate, expect, intend, may, will, plan, goal, project, hope, trend, target, opportunity, and similar words or expressions, or by references to typical outcomes. Any statement that is not a purely historical fact, including estimates, projections, trends, and the outcome of events that have not yet occurred, is a forward-looking statement. Our forward-looking statements generally relate to our expectations regarding the business environment in which we operate, our projections of future performance and opportunities for growth based on potential market opportunities, our perceived marketplace opportunities, our strategies, goals, mission and vision, and our expectations about matters including capital expenditures, tax rates, inventory levels, liquidity, liabilities from tax positions, the performance of our fastener business in comparison to our non-fastener business, openings and closing of in-market locations and signings of Onsite locations and new machine equivalent units for Fastenal Managed Inventory (FMI) (including bin stock and industrial vending) and the competitive advantages they offer, our digital solutions and other product offerings (including new product lines), national accounts as a percentage of overall sales, the advantages of our integrated physical and virtual model, growth in safety products as a percentage of product sales, the amoun

BUSINESS

ITEM 1. BUSINESS Note – Information in this section is as of year end unless otherwise noted. The year end is December 31, 2023 unless additional years are included or noted. Overview Fastenal Company (together with our subsidiaries, hereinafter referred to as 'Fastenal' or the company or by terms such as we, our, or us) began as a partnership in 1967, and was incorporated under the laws of Minnesota in 1968. We opened our first branch in 1967 in Winona, Minnesota, a city with a population today of approximately 26,000. We began with a marketing strategy of supplying threaded fasteners to customers through a branch network in small, medium, and, in subsequent years, large cities. Over time, how and where we engage our customers has expanded and evolved. Today we sell a broader range of industrial and construction supplies spanning more than nine major product lines through a global network of in-market locations utilizing diverse technologies such as vending devices, bin stock devices, and eCommerce. The large majority of our transactions are business-to-business. We provide additional descriptions of our product lines and market channels later in this document. At the end of 2023, we had 3,419 in-market locations (defined in the table below) in 25 countries supported by 15 distribution centers in North America (12 in the United States, two in Canada, and one in Mexico), and two in Europe, and we employed 23,201 people. We believe our success can be attributed to the high quality of our employees and their convenient proximity to our customers, and our ability to offer customers a full range of products and services to reduce their total cost of procurement. Our Channels to Market We engage our customers primarily through branch and Onsite locations. Branches and Onsites exist very close to our customers, usually within miles in the case of the former and most often within or immediately proximate to our customers' physical locations in the case of the latter,