As one of the first publicly traded industrial supplies distributors to report its financial results each quarter — and the only one that does monthly — Fastenal is an industry bellwether for underlying demand and customer sentiment. For most of the past two years, Fastenal has described demand in its end markets as largely sluggish or choppy, with tariff-driven uncertainty playing a key role since the start of 2025.

1Q26 may have been a turning point.

In Fastenal’s latest earnings report and call on April 13, management voiced optimism regarding underlying demand for the markets it serves, while the company’s own execution led to continued strong outperformance.

Let’s dive into Fastenal’s 1Q26 and March business metrics here.

Our 2026 SHIFT Conference is coming May 12-14. Join us in Denver! 

MDM Case Study: Fastenal (Premium access here) 

The Big Picture

1Q26

• Fastenal posted 1Q26 total sales of $2.2 billion — up 12.4% year-over-year and on a daily sales basis. It was a sequential deceleration from 4Q25’s 11.1% growth but the company’s best quarterly growth mark since 3Q22 (16%) when Fastenal was still seeing a major tailwind from pandemic-related PPE and other safety products demand.
• Fastenal attributed the 1Q sales growth primarily to share gains and broad-based demand across core end markets. The company said pricing had a ~350 basis points impact on sales — up from 310-340 in 4Q25 and neutral in 1Q25. Meanwhile, foreign exchange rates had a ~60-point tailwind on 1Q26 sales, compared to a negative 50-point impact in 1Q25. 
  • Key Analysis: Sequentially, the 350-point pricing impact on YoY sales growth was the highest Fastenal has reported amid the current inflationary period, but had a much smaller increase than in the previous three quarters. Those increases advanced from neutral in 1Q25; to approximately 140-170 basis points in 2Q25; 240-270 bps in 3Q25; 310-340 bps in 4Q25; and 350 bps in 1Q26. Management noted that pricing actions continue, but at a slower-than-expected pace, and that it expects pricing to plateau around the mid-point of 2026.

• 1Q26 gross margin of 44.6% fell 50 basis points year-over-year on customer mix and unfavorable timing headwind for tariff-related price realization, and trailed market expectations by 30 bps. Management noted that pricing actions didn’t keep up with higher costs of business as the quarter progressed.

• 1Q26 SG&A expenses grew 9.3% year-over-year while margin fall 70 bps
• Operating profit of $448 million grew 13.6% YoY with margin up 20 bps
• Net profit of $340 million grew 13.8% YoY
• In March, Fastenal sales of $794 million grew 16.8% year-over-year, with daily sales up 11.5%. The daily sales growth figure was a deceleration from February’s 13.3%, but marked the ninth straight month in double digits.

Management remarks: In its earnings call, Fastenal executives said that customer sentiment was generally favorable throughout 1Q26 and that “broader market conditions have begun to improve,” albeit unevenly and with lasting uncertainty. The company emphasized it saw solid engagement across Fastener’s customer base during the quarter and that the majority of customer spend hesitancy was more of a cost and planning issue rather than a demand issue.

Fastenal to Build New Southeast U.S. Logistics Hub in Georgia – March 14

MDM Analysis

As per usual with Fastenal, its strong performance shouldn’t be viewed as a direct correlation to demand health for the manufacturing, construction, contractor and general industrial markets it serves. Fasteners, welding and safety were among the strongest growth categories in the 1Q26 Baird-MDM Industrial Distribution Survey (our resulting report coming soon), matching Fastenal’s comments about improving market conditions, but it’s the company-specific execution measures that has kept Fastenal ahead of the field. Net-net, the company’s 1Q26 report and sentiment is a definite positive for other distributors serving the same markets, but tempered with factors of pricing that Fastenal can leverage more favorably than most alongside its unique sales execution actions.

Go Deeper

Fastenal’s 1Q26

Daily Sales Growth by End Market

• Heavy Manufacturing — 44.0% of sales: +14.1%
• Other Manufacturing — 32.2% of sales: +9.9%
• Total Manufacturing — 76.2% of sales: +12.3%
• Non-Residential Construction — 8.2% of sales: +17.2%
• Other End Markets — 15.6% of sales: +11.3%
• Total Non-Manufacturing — 23.8% of sales: +13.2%

Daily sales growth by Customer Type

• Contract Sales — 75.4% of sales: +14.6%
• Non-Contract Sales — 24.6% of sales: +6.7%

Vending & Digital Commerce

• Fastenal’s 1Q sales from FMI Technology — comprised of its FASTStock, FASTBin and FASTVend offering — totaled $1.0 billion (44.9% of total sales), up 16.6% year-over-year (+16.5% in 4Q25)
• Fastenal signed 6,950 weighted FASTBIN and FASTVend devices during 1Q, up 8.3% year-over-year, while the 137,702 installations it had at the end of the period were up 5.9%. The company signed 25,892 total devices during 2025, and its goal for 2026 remains 28,000 to 30,000.
• Fastenal’s daily sales through its eBusiness — including eProcurement and eCommerce — grew 6.8% year-over-year (+6.4% in 4Q25)
• Fastenal’s digital footprint (FMI + non-FMI-related eBusiness) represented 61.5% of total sales in the quarter, a dip sequentially vs. 62.1% in 4Q25 and up 50 bps YoY. The company’s digital footprint goal for 2026 remains 66%.

Fastenal’s March

Fastenal saw accelerated sales growth in its two predominant end markets, while sales decelerated in each of its three product lines — especially in fasteners. Here’s a breakdown of Fastenal’s December 2025 sales report and how each metric compared with November:

March Daily Sales by Geography, Year-Over-Year:

• United States – 82.6% of sales: +10.6% (+10.2% in Feb)
• Canada/Mexico – 13.8% of sales: +13.9% (+13.8% in Feb)
• Rest of World – 3.6% of sales: +23.7% (+19.9% in Feb)

Total Direct Materials (Production related) — 39.1% of sales: +12.8% (+13.4% in Feb)

• Direct fasteners/hardware – 21.3% of sales: +13.9% (+13.5% in Feb)
• Direct cutting tools & abrasives – 5.1% of sales: +10.4% (+13.0% in Feb)
• Direct non-fasteners/hardware – 12.7% of sales: +11.9% (+13.4% in Feb)

Total Indirect Materials (MRO related) — 60.9% of sales: +11.7% (+13.6%)

• Indirect fasteners/hardware – 10.0% of sales: +15.6% (+20.6% in Feb)
• Indirect safety – 20.9% of sales: +11.3% (+13.0% in Feb)
• Indirect non-fasteners/hardware & non-safety – 30.5% of sales: +10.8% (+11.9% in Feb)

March Daily Sales by Customer End Market: 

• Heavy manufacturing – 44.2% of sales: +13.8% (+14.4% in Feb)
• Other manufacturing – 31.8% of sales: +8.7% (+13.3% in Feb)
• Non-residential construction – 8.2% of sales: +15.2% (+10.8% in Feb)
• Other – 15.8% of sales: +12.2% (-1.5% in Feb)

March Daily Sales by Customer Category: 

• 67.0% of Top 100 national accounts were growing (66.0% in Feb)
• 65.3% of in-market locations were growing (64.2% in Feb)
• Contract customers: +14.0% (+15.0% in Feb)
• Non-contract customers: +6.0% (+4.0% in Feb)
• FMI: +17.0% (+16.0% in Feb)
• eBusiness: +6.0% (+7.0% in Feb)

March Headcount

Fastenal ended March with a total headcount of 24,675 — a 0.1% dip from February and up 2.0% year-over-year. Full-time selling personnel headcount ended March at 15,450 — flat vs. February and up 1.4% year-over-year.