One of the nice things about Wall Street is that you can very quickly and directly get a read on what investors think about things by simply watching stock prices. So when 's (NASDAQ: FAST) stock rose 7.5% after the company reported third-quarter earnings, it was clear to see that Wall Street liked what it read. The problem is that, sometimes, investors as a group focus on the wrong things. Here's the bad news that investors may be missing at Fastenal today.

It is important to understand what Fastenal does. For starters, it is an industrial company, so it sells to other companies, not directly to consumers. Second, it sells fasteners and tools that are, basically, consumable items that are vital to manufacturers's operations.

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Source Fool.com