Early 2012 Returns Show Mixed Results

January 15

00:00 2013

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1/15/2013 2:36:00 AM
FEATURE

Early returns show mixed results for fastener companies in 2012.
Not surprisingly, companies that service the aerospace market appear to hold an edge over their counterparts in the automotive and industrial segments.

But as more fastener companies report full-year earnings in the coming weeks, that advantage could dwindle.

Fastenal is scheduled to report its full-year earnings on January 17.

At least one market analyst is dampening expectations on Fastenal’s performance.

“Fastenal’s daily sales growth rates in the second and third quarters of 2012 were lower than the first quarter as well as year-ago comparable periods,” Zachs.com reports. “Daily sales growth rates of manufacturing customers (representing almost 50% of revenues) have declined sharply due to lower sales of its fasteners product line” — (mainly industrial fasteners).

“We believe that the shift of resources to Fastenal’s vending program (FAST Solutions) may also be hurting fastener sales and eventually affect margins,” according to Zachs.com.

But analysts have downplayed Fastenal’s potential in the past, only to be proved wrong.

Here is a selection of headlines about market conditions.

Alcoa Fastening Segment Achieves Record ATOI
Improvement “driven primarily by productivity gains, partially offset by cost increases.”

Fastener Distributors Looking for Brighter 2013
Despite sluggish growth, the outlook statement was “increasingly positive again, and respondents are looking for growth in 2013.”

Bossard Achieves ‘Slight’ Sales Increase
The Bossard Group achieved a 4.7% sales increase to CHF 117 million in the final quarter of 2012, despite a challenging market.

MSC Industrial Sales & Margins Improve
“We produced revenue growth… in an eroding demand environment.”

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