Fastenal Company (FAST) is Climbing Amid End Market Weakness

Mairs & Power, an investment advisor, released the “Mairs & Power Balanced Fund” second quarter 2025 investor letter. A copy of the letter can be downloaded here. The quarter started with tariff uncertainty, conflicts in the Middle East, rising national debt, and the worst start to a year for the dollar; however, it bounced back to rise 25% from that low by the end of the quarter. The fund returned 2.66% in the first half of 2025. The fund underperformed the benchmark composite indexes (60% S&P 500 Total Return Index and 40% Bloomberg U.S. Government/Credit Bond Index), which were up 5.43% and the Morningstar Moderate Allocation peer group, which rose 5.67%. In addition, please check the fund’s top five holdings to know its best picks in 2025.

In its second-quarter 2025 investor letter, Mairs & Power Balanced Fund highlighted stocks such as Fastenal Company (NASDAQ:FAST). Fastenal Company (NASDAQ:FAST) is a wholesale distributor of industrial and construction supplies. The one-month return of Fastenal Company (NASDAQ:FAST) was -4.40%, and its shares gained 35.74% of their value over the last 52 weeks. On September 23, 2025, Fastenal Company (NASDAQ:FAST) stock closed at $47.99 per share, with a market capitalization of $55.075 billion.

Mairs & Power Balanced Fund stated the following regarding Fastenal Company (NASDAQ:FAST) in its second quarter 2025 investor letter:

“The Fund’s Industrials sector overweight aided results in the first half of 2025, but selection within the sector more than offset this, resulting in an overall negative relative impact for the Fund. Toro (TTC), where the Fund has a meaningful position, reported slowing revenue growth on weaker consumer sales, and the company lowered its guidance, leading the stock to fall. Offsetting this slightly was Fastenal Company (NASDAQ:FAST), whose continued growth suggested market share gains as the company faces similar end market weakness on slowing industrial demand.”

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Fastenal Company (NASDAQ:FAST) is not on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. According to our database, 42 hedge fund portfolios held Fastenal Company (NASDAQ:FAST) at the end of the second quarter, up from 39 in the previous quarter. While we acknowledge the risk and potential of Fastenal Company (NASDAQ:FAST) as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that some AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than Fastenal Company (NASDAQ:FAST) and that has 10,000% upside potential, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.

In another article, we covered Fastenal Company (NASDAQ:FAST) and shared Josh Brown’s views on the company. In addition, please check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 2025 page for more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors.

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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.