Fastenal vs United Rentals
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The short version
- United Rentals is the larger business, with $16.1B of revenue in fiscal 2025 against $8.2B for Fastenal, about 2.0 times as much.
- Fastenal grew revenue faster (8.7%, against 4.9%).
- United Rentals kept more of each dollar of sales as operating profit (24.7% operating margin, against 20.2%).
- Fastenal earned a higher return on the capital invested in it (34.3%, against 13.4%).
- Investors pay more for each dollar of Fastenal’s earnings: a P/E of 42.2x against 28.0x for United Rentals.
| Latest fiscal year | FAST · FY25 | URI · FY25 |
|---|---|---|
| Size | ||
| Market cap | $59.7B | $69.2B |
| Revenue | $8.2B | $16.1B |
| Free cash flow | $1.1B | — |
| Net income | $1.3B | $2.5B |
| Growth | ||
| Revenue growth | 8.7% | 4.9% |
| 5-year growth | 7.8% | 13.6% |
| Share count change | 0.2% | −3.0% |
| Profitability | ||
| Gross margin | 45.0% | 38.2% |
| Operating margin | 20.2% | 24.7% |
| Net margin | 15.4% | 15.5% |
| FCF margin | 12.8% | — |
| Return on capital | 34.3% | 13.4% |
| Return on equity | 33.3% | 28.4% |
| Balance sheet | ||
| Net debt | −$152M | $13.8B |
| Net debt / EBITDA | −0.1x | 3.1x |
| Dividends and buybacks | $1.0B | $2.4B |
| Valuation & quality | ||
| P/E | 42.2x | 28.0x |
| Piotroski F-score | 7 | 5 |
Revenue
FY16
FAST $4.0B
URI $5.8B
FY17
FAST $4.4B
URI $6.6B
FY18
FAST $5.0B
URI $8.0B
FY19
FAST $5.3B
URI $9.4B
FY20
FAST $5.6B
URI $8.5B
FY21
FAST $6.0B
URI $9.7B
FY22
FAST $7.0B
URI $11.6B
FY23
FAST $7.3B
URI $14.3B
FY24
FAST $7.5B
URI $15.3B
FY25
FAST $8.2B
URI $16.1B
FAST
URI
Operating margin
FY16
FAST 20.1%
URI 24.6%
FY17
FAST 20.1%
URI 22.7%
FY18
FAST 20.1%
URI 24.3%
FY19
FAST 19.8%
URI 23.0%
FY20
FAST 20.2%
URI 21.1%
FY21
FAST 20.3%
URI 23.4%
FY22
FAST 20.8%
URI 27.8%
FY23
FAST 20.8%
URI 26.7%
FY24
FAST 20.0%
URI 26.5%
FY25
FAST 20.2%
URI 24.7%
FAST
URI
Free cash flow
FY16
FAST $330M
URI —
FY17
FAST $465M
URI —
FY18
FAST $498M
URI —
FY19
FAST $596M
URI —
FY20
FAST $934M
URI —
FY21
FAST $614M
URI —
FY22
FAST $767M
URI —
FY23
FAST $1.3B
URI —
FY24
FAST $947M
URI —
FY25
FAST $1.1B
URI —
FAST
URI
Return on capital
FY16
FAST 23.7%
URI 9.5%
FY17
FAST 25.4%
URI 14.1%
FY18
FAST 30.3%
URI 10.6%
FY19
FAST 29.3%
URI 11.0%
FY20
FAST 30.2%
URI 9.6%
FY21
FAST 30.6%
URI 11.6%
FY22
FAST 32.8%
URI 14.3%
FY23
FAST 33.7%
URI 15.4%
FY24
FAST 33.2%
URI 15.1%
FY25
FAST 34.3%
URI 13.4%
FAST
URI
Each company's latest fiscal year; fiscal years end in different months. The best value in each row is highlighted where higher (or lower) is clearly better. Not investment advice.