Get Paid 8.3% To Let Someone Else Chase FAST Stock Higher

Get paid a guaranteed cash income on your Fastenal shares now, which you keep no matter what, in exchange for agreeing to sell at a profitable price if the stock keeps climbing.

Fastenal (FAST) has been a steady industrial performer, but after a solid run, the stock is trading about 8% below its 52-week high. For shareholders sitting on a position, it raises a classic question: what now? Here’s one answer that pays you a meaningful cash income today, regardless of what the stock does next.

8.3% annualized income on FAST shares you already own, with 9.3% of upside room, by selling a covered call.

• You own (or buy) 100 shares of FAST near today’s price of $45.74.
• Sell one call option on FAST expiring 6/17/2027, with a strike price of $50, about 9.3% above today.
• Collect roughly $350 in premium up front per contract (each contract covers 100 shares), which you keep no matter what the stock does.
• That premium is about 8.3% annualized on the $4,574 of stock, income you earn just for holding.
• If FAST finishes above $50, your shares are called away at $50. Counting the premium, your total return works out to about 18% annualized, but you give up any gains above the strike.

Two Outcomes, You Keep The Income Either Way

If FAST finishes below $50 on 6/17/2027, the call expires worthless, and you keep the full $350 premium and all your shares. That is about 7.7% over 338 days, income earned just for holding, and you are free to sell another call.

If FAST finishes above $50, your 100 shares are called away at $50. You still keep the $350 premium, and counting it your total gain works out to about 17%, a healthy exit. The cost of the trade is that any gain above $50 is no longer yours. And if the stock instead falls, you keep the premium but still ride the shares down, cushioned only slightly.

So the whole trade comes down to one thing: how much of that upside are you really likely to give up, and would you be content to sell at that higher price?

Would You Be Happy To Sell FAST Higher?

The argument for holding out for more upside is all about momentum. Fastenal is firing on all cylinders, with daily sales growth accelerating to 14.7% last quarter, up from 12.4% in the first quarter. The company is winning bigger business, the number of customer sites spending $50 thousand or more per month grew 16.5%, and the outgoing CEO even flagged that sales in his final month grew “north of 20%.” That’s the kind of powerful execution that could easily push the stock well past your strike price, leaving you with a capped gain and a case of seller’s remorse.

But that top-line muscle isn’t telling the whole story. Under the hood, there’s a margin squeeze. Gross margin contracted by 75 basis-points year-over-year, hit by a price-cost headwind that management is still fighting to neutralize. This isn’t just a blip; the company’s strategic shift toward larger customers, while great for sales, carries lower gross margins by design. This is the trade-off in a nutshell: are you willing to exchange that potential blue-sky growth for a guaranteed cash payment now, especially if you suspect the path higher will be a grind? The one thing to watch is that price-cost gap. If the company can close it, the bulls have their catalyst. If not, getting paid to set a profitable exit price might be the smartest move on the board.

What Income Could Your Own Stocks Pay?

You may not own FAST, but you almost certainly own something that could be paying you. Our Covered Call Finder lets you type in a stock, or a few, and instantly see the income a covered call could generate on each, then dial the strike up or down with a slider to balance more income against more upside. It is the quickest way to see what the names in your own portfolio could pay.

One step out from a single name: a U.S. basic materials ETF like IYM owns the whole U.S. basic materials group at once, so no single company can sink you. It still rises and falls with that one theme, which is exactly the gap the portfolio below closes.

Income From A Big Position Does Not Shrink The Position

Selling calls generates income from a holding you already own, which makes now the right moment to check how large that holding has actually become. That check is exactly what the Trefis Wealth team provides, with the same rules-based systematic discipline that runs our High Quality Portfolio. Request a free vulnerability audit of your biggest positions.