r/dividendinvesting

Fastenal grew revenue 14.7% this quarter with flat sales volumes. That gap is basically the whole debate on this stock.

They distribute fasteners, tools, safety products, industrial supplies to manufacturing and construction customers. Founded 1967, genuinely durable moat built on switching costs, once a customer's got Fastenal's vending machines, inventory management, and procurement systems wired into their operations, ripping that out for a competitor is a real pain.

Q2 2026 revenue came in at $2.39B, up 14.7% YoY, beat the $2.34B estimate. GAAP EPS of $0.33 matched consensus exactly. Growth was broad too, heavy manufacturing up 18.1%, total manufacturing up 14.9%, non-residential construction up 17%.

Here's the part actually worth sitting with though. Sales volumes were flat year over year. All 14.7% of that growth came from contract signings, pricing actions, and taking more share of existing customers' purchasing. Operational execution and pricing power, basically, not the industrial economy actually moving more volume. Free cash flow margin also slipped to 8.4% from 10.1% a year ago, gross margin down about 75bps on tariff and supplier cost pressure. They're putting roughly $320M into 2026 capex on hubs, automation, and vending infrastructure to keep deepening that customer lock-in.

Valuation's really the whole argument here. Trades around 38-39x earnings, and Wall Street's leaning cautious on it, one recent tally showed zero buy ratings against 11 holds and 4 sells. Fair value estimates I've seen range pretty widely, low $30s to around $40, generally at or below the current price. There's also a leadership change happening, longtime CEO Daniel Florness stepped down from both the board and the CEO role in mid-July.

Business quality's not really in question, that moat is real. What I can't square is whether that quality justifies almost 39x earnings when volume growth is flat and margins are getting squeezed by tariffs at the same time.

Anyone hold Fastenal comfortable with the multiple here, or is the flat-volume detail enough to make you wait for a better entry?

UK based, I started 3 years ago, this is a mix of my S&S ISA and SIPP. I know I should not focus on dividend that early (I am 38) but I do enjoy the payouts and just want to keep growing them. I have another pension more focused on growth. I currently top up £600 / month (500 S&S and 100 SIPP). I realised too late that US stocks don t pay the tax on my SIPP but leaving it as is for now.

Most people who followed $CYDY remember March 30, 2021. The FDA publicly stated that CytoDyn's claims about leronlimab were "misleading and not supported by the data", no benefit was shown in COVID-19 treatment trials. The stock dropped 25%+ that day.

What happened afterward was a class action lawsuit covering investors who held $CYDY between March 27, 2020 and March 30, 2022.

A $500,000 settlement has been reached and terms are now submitted to the court for approval.

Who qualifies?

Anyone who held $CYDY during the class period and suffered losses from the alleged misrepresentations about leronlimab's effectiveness for HIV and COVID-19.

Can I still apply?

Yes, you can submit your application now and it will be processed once claims filing officially opens after court approval.

If you were damaged by this don't forget to check your eligibility. GL!

30 years old, I have $8,000 to invest. I’m trying to decide between SCHD or JEPI. The reason why I am considering JEPI is because I just hit my break even point, as opposed to SCHD where I am up overall 21%. What would you do?

Every month we pull the trailing 1-year total return for every stock in our universe, rank them by market-cap tier, and publish the top performers. No opinions, no "buy this now" — just what actually happened, sorted plainly.

Why we do this differently: Most "top stocks" lists mix timeframes, cherry-pick lookback windows, or bury the methodology. Ours is simple: trailing 1-year total return (price + dividends), split by cap size (large/mid/small), recalculated on the same day every month.

All in on NEOS. Dividends will be split between bills and SCHD.

I'm 54 now, so retirement has definitely been on my mind a lot more lately. I find myself checking my projected income more often than I used to. Even seeing small increases helps keep me motivated.

My long-term goal is about $80,000 a year in dividend income.

My next milestone is $2,000 a month. I'm continuing to reinvest everything and add to my portfolio every month, with the goal of retiring around 2035.

What keeps you motivated to stay the course? And how close are you to your milestone?

Started focusing more on dividend investing and slowly building a portfolio for the long term.

I’ve received around ₹2.54L in dividends so far, which honestly feels pretty satisfying seeing money come in without selling anything.

Now I’ve set myself a simple goal: ₹5L/year in dividends.

Still a long way to go, but I’m enjoying watching the passive income grow, one dividend at a time.

Would love to hear from fellow dividend investors — what’s your target?

Here we go...