Fastenal (FAST) Director Rita Heise Exercises Options and Sells Shares

What Happened Rita J. Heise, a Fastenal Company director, exercised stock options on 2026-08-05 to acquire a total of 34,964 shares (10,000 shares at $13.00 and 24,964 shares at $19.00) and immediately sold those 34,964 shares in open-market transactions at $50.05 per share. Gross sale proceeds were $1,750,102; the exercise costs were $604,316, implying gross cash net of exercise cost of roughly $1,145,786 before taxes and fees. The filing also reports zero-dollar derivative dispositions for the same share amounts (common in option settlement reporting).

Key Details

• Transaction date: 2026-08-05; Form 4 filed 2026-08-06 (timely).
• Options exercised: 10,000 shares @ $13.00 ($130,000) and 24,964 shares @ $19.00 ($474,316).
• Open-market sales: 10,000 shares @ $50.05 ($500,544) and 24,964 shares @ $50.05 ($1,249,558).
• Total shares exercised and sold: 34,964; total sale proceeds: $1,750,102; total exercise cost: $604,316.
• Footnotes: F1 notes a 2-for-1 stock split (May 21, 2025) — reported amounts adjusted; F2 indicates some shares are held in a revocable trust where Ms. Heise and spouse serve as trustees; F3 and F4 state the options were granted 1/2/2019 and 1/2/2020, respectively, in lieu of director retainer and were immediately vested/exercisable.
• Shares owned after the transaction are not specified in the provided filing extract.

Context This was an option exercise followed by same-day sales (a cashless-like sequence): the director converted vested options into shares and sold them in the market the same day. Such transactions are common for directors receiving option compensation and do not, by themselves, indicate a change in company outlook. The zero-dollar derivative dispositions in the filing typically reflect settlement mechanics (e.g., share surrender for taxes or cancellation of the exercised option).