Zacks Investment Ideas feature highlights: Fastenal, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and Netflix

Zacks Equity Research

Mon, Jul 14, 2025, 9:52 AM 8 min read

Chicago, IL – July 14, 2025– Today, Zacks Investment Ideas feature highlights Fastenal FAST, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. TSM and Netflix, Inc. NFLX.

The stock market is trading at all-time highs heading into the heart of second quarter earnings season, which kicks off during the week of July 14.

Wall Street brushed aside renewed trade and tariff war fears as it looks ahead to the prospect of strong technology and artificial intelligence-boosted earnings expansion.

The bulls appear firmly in charge with Bitcoin at records and Nvidia hitting a $4 trillion market cap.

It is unclear what’s right around the corner on the trade war front. But it’s worth remembering that Trump and his administration likely do not want to crush the U.S. economy or the stock market. Plus, the Fed is still likely to cut rates again in the back half of 2025.

Given this environment, investors want to add to their portfolios in July for what looks poised to be a strong second half.

Today’s Full Court Finance at Zacks dives into three stocks—Fastenal, Taiwan Semi, and Netflix—to buy heading into their second-quarter earnings releases and hold. These three stocks offer investors unique exposure to long-term upside across various areas of the economy that aren’t going out of style.

Fastenal is a wholesale distributor of industrial, construction, safety products, and beyond. The Minnesota-based company sells everything from fasteners and electrical supplies to tools, hardware, safety gear, and much more.

FAST operates across various distribution and delivery methods, including industrial-style vending machines and other rather unique offerings from roughly 3,500 in-market locations that include local hubs, customer-specific onsite locations, and beyond.

Fastenal is less vulnerable to the boom-and-bust cycles of the broader industrial and construction sector because its smaller components are key, everyday cogs. FAST will also benefit from economic growth and infrastructure spending, spanning AI data center construction to onshoring critical manufacturing.

FAST grew its sales for 15 years running, averaging over 7% revenue growth in the trailing five years. It is projected to boost its revenue by 8% in 2025 and 2026 to help boost its adjusted earnings by 9% and 10%, respectively, to return strong bottom-line expansion after a brief dip last year.

Fastenal stock has jumped 36% in the past 12 months to triple the benchmark and hit new highs on Thursday. This run is part of a 2,100% surge in the past 25 years to more than 5X the S&P 500’s 385% return and crush its Industrial Products sector’s 450%.