WINONA, Minn. (AP) _ Fastenal Co. (FAST) on Thursday reported third-quarter profit of $284.6 million.

On a per-share basis, the Winona, Minnesota-based company said it had profit of 50 cents.

The results beat Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of six analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 48 cents per share.

The maker of industrial and construction fasteners posted revenue of $1.8 billion in the period, which also beat Street forecasts. Six analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $1.79 billion.

This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on FAST at https://www.zacks.com/ap/FAST

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