In short: Favourite #4 — "A slow, reliable compounder that embeds its supply machines right inside the customer's factory." "They put vending machines stocked with their products right inside their customers' factories. That makes Fastenal incredibly convenient, and difficult to replace. The result is a slow, boring, highly profitable compounder." Metrics: revenue +9.0%, EPS +9.3%, gross margin 45.6%, ROIC 30.3%. Chart: revenue $4.39bn (2017) → $8.75bn LTM (8.0% CAGR), diluted EPS $0.50 → $1.18 (10.0%), with a flat 2024. The archive's first mention of the name; no valuation.
Fastenal sells the unglamorous stuff factories and building sites burn through — screws, bolts, gloves, tools. Its twist is putting its own vending machines inside customers' buildings, so a worker grabs what they need on the spot and Fastenal restocks automatically. Once the machines are installed, a customer has little reason to call anyone else.
The post calls it "a slow, boring, highly profitable compounder": sales have roughly doubled since 2017 and profit per share has more than doubled, with about 30 cents of profit a year on each dollar invested. It is growing more slowly than the other four favourites, and the post gives no valuation.
In short: Baruch owns it (reports next Monday): "a real gauge on the US industrial economy," benefiting from reshoring and energy — "high hopes they can do well here."
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Verbatim excerpts from the public transcripts (auto-pulled at each mention's timestamp, lightly cleaned). Timestamps link into the video; "source page" opens that commentator's full analysis at this row. Click a mention's header line to expand it (one open at a time). For personal study — not investment advice.