Fastenal (FAST), a business that deals in industrial supplies, reported stats for the fourth quarter on Tuesday. According to TheFly, the management team did not impress Wall Street's analysts. They were looking for 45 cents per share. Alas, the company came in shy of that number by the proverbial penny. However, as Benzinga notes, the year-over-year growth in net income was well over 40%.

Plus, the price action in the stock was quite nice after the release. Shares closed higher by 1.8% to a quote of $60.95. The 52-week high for the shares is $61.53. Volume was strong.

The earnings season ramps up this week. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters foresee strong reports from such big names as Apple (AAPL), eBay (EBAY), IBM (IBM), General Electric (GE), Google (GOOG), Schlumberger (SLB) and Southwest Airlines (LUV). And fast on the heels of last week's big earnings beat from JPMorgan Chase (JPM), there will be plenty more results from the financial sector to peruse this week.

Among the financials expected to post double-digit earnings growth this week are Capital One Financial (COF), Morgan Stanley (MS), SLM Corp. (SLM) and U.S. Bancorp (USB), but the week's biggest earnings winner may be Wells Fargo (WFC).

Analyst Upgrades

• Amgen (AMGN) to overweight from neutral at Piper Jaffray.
• Goodrich Petroleum (GDP) to outperform from market perform at Wells Fargo.
• Tutor Perini (TPC) to buy from neutral at UBS.
• Covidien (COV) to buy from neutral at Goldman.
• Sara Lee (SLE) and Comcast (CMCSA) to outperform from market perform at Bernstein.
• Research In Motion (RIMM) to outperform from sector perform at FBN Securities.

Option traders appear to be setting up for a bullish move on iShares Barclays 7 to 10 Year Treasury (IEF). Traders plowed into 4,342 new call option contracts -- 3.33 times the average volume -- on the stock on Wednesday. And we know that traders were eager to get into this trade because 99% of the trades came in on the ask price.

It looks like traders are trying to get into these Treasuries ahead of the Fed, just in case it moves ahead with more quantitative easing. The ETF closed Wednesday at $97.39, down 0.17% during the past month.

Back in October of last year, I wasn't bullish on Fastenal (FAST). Today, though, things could be different after the company, which sells all kinds of industrial products (think tools, motors, chemicals, paints, etc.), reported its second-quarter numbers on Tuesday. The figures do tell a story of a nice rebound.

According to the corporate press release, the top line increased 20%, and the bottom line advanced 62% to 47 cents per share. The Fly says the latter went beyond expectations by three solid pennies. Shareholders have got to be happy with these stats.

Analyst Upgrades

• Argus upgraded Weyerhaeuser (WY) to buy from hold, citing the better-than-expected Q1 report and expectations that the company is about to be profitable. The firm has a $59 target on the stock.
• Weeden upgraded Cameron (CAM) to buy from hold as it views the recent sell-off as overdone.
• Oppenheimer upgraded Mobile Mini (MINI) to outperform from perform based on valuation and what the firm sees as the company's attractive risk/reward ratio. The firm set a $25 target.
• Johnson Controls (JCI) was upgraded to buy from hold at Deutsche Bank.
• EnerNOC (ENOC) was upgraded to buy from neutral at Janney Montgomery.
• Checkpoint (CKP) was upgraded to outperform from neutral at Baird.

I found an interesting article over on Barron's that takes a look at Fastenal (FAST) and its prospect for a good year thanks to the perceived economic recovery.

The article notes that Fastenal had a rather difficult year last year as the company was "hammered" (their pun, not mine) by the recession. The company saw sales drop 17.5% and profit drop 34.1%. Last year, the company took on cost controls, cut its workforce, and cut hours for its employees. According to the article, these measures helped, as Fastenal saw daily revenue increase 2.4% in January and 4.4% in February, which was the company's first year-over-year sales gains since late 2008. The article adds that the company's balance sheet is "another big plus," with no debt and a dividend that produces a 1.7% yield.

Here are some highlights from last week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) higher Q3 earnings topped expectations but revenue was in line.
• Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NYSE: AMD) posted better-than-expected Q3 results, but shares sold off.
• Allegheny Technologies Inc. (NYSE: ATI) was downgraded on concerns about its Q4 guidance.
• Bank of America Corp. (NYSE: BAC) shares fell after it posted a deeper-than-expected quarterly loss.
• Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C) fell victim to profit taking despite reporting better-than-expected earnings.
• CSX Corp. (NYSE: CSX) better-than-expected Q3 earnings sent shares higher, despite a decline in revenue.

Fastenal Company (NASDAQ: FAST), a company that sells supplies to the construction industry and whose colleagues include W.W. Grainger (NYSE: GWW) and MSC Industrial Direct Co. (NYSE: MSM), didn't do so well in its third quarter. According to Reuters, per-share profit missed expectations by a penny, coming in at 32 cents. Net sales, however, met expectations at $489 million.

A comparison of this year's data to last year's results also indicates a rather tepid performance. Fastenal earned 49 cents per share in the year-ago period according to the actual press release. In addition, the current quarter's top line saw a decline of well over 20%. The economy is limiting Fastenal's ability to grow, no question about that.

Fastenal Company (NASDAQ: FAST) fell short of Wall Street's second-quarter earnings expectations, with the industrial supply firm confessing to a 43% slide in net profit for the period. Specifically, FAST raked in earnings of $43.5 million, or 29 cents per share, while revenue dwindled 21% to $474.9 million. Analysts were looking for a more robust quarterly profit of 33 cents per share on $487 million in revenue.

"As we saw in the previous two quarters, the weakened economy continues to have a substantial impact on our business," reported Fastenal in a press release. "These impacts continue to negatively affect our sales, particularly related to our industrial production business . . . and, more recently, our non-residential construction business."

This post is part of a feature on companies and products that our bloggers think are in need of a makeover. See all 26.

McDonald's has been hit by one serious critique after another of food safety and nutrition. The company has gone from being a family chain to something only those desperate to save time or money want. There have been half-hearted efforts to modernize, but what McDonald's really needs is a complete menu makeover.

I'm not talking about changing away from hamburgers in all their infinite variety, either. But over the last couple decades the eating public has gotten a lot more picky and worried about getting fat or sick from mad cow disease or some contaminant.

There have been many serious critiques of their impact on worldwide nutrition. Eric Schlosser described in Fast Food Nation how mega-producer McDonald's uses butchering assembly lines. In an era of food safety concern, "a single fast-food hamburger now contains meat from dozens or even hundreds of different cattle." Morgan Spurlock examined in the movie Supersize Me and a related book what happens when an individual -- or a whole country -- eats too much McDonald's.

Of course, McDonald's is facing pressure from the other side, too. We want cheap food. Especially in a recession, people love the dollar menu. But McDonald's has just got to improve the food.

Here are some highlights from this past week's earnings coverage from BloggingStocks:

• Activision Blizzard Inc. (NASDAQ: ATVID) sees strong Q1 results driven by Guitar Hero.
• Allegheny Technologies Inc. (NYSE: ATI) raised its Q2 earnings guidance ahead of its report.
• Cintas Corp. (NASDAQ: CTAS) strong Q4 and full-year results included a record quarterly revenue.
• Citigroup (NYSE: C) posted better-than-expected results despite a big loss on further write-downs.
• eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) reported better-than-expected results and offered a soft outlook (see transcript).
• Fastenal Co. (NASDAQ: FAST) posted strong Q2 earnings despite the housing slump but lower revenues.
• Grainger Inc. (NYSE: GWW) posted strong Q2 results on expansion in Mexico and China.
• Harley-Davidson Inc. (NYSE: HOG) beat Q2 expectations despite profit and revenue declines.
• International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM) easily topped Wall Street earnings expectations.
• Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) beat Q2 estimates and raised its full-year forecast (see transcript).
• Kimberly-Clark Corp. (NYSE: KMB) warned of lower Q2 earnings due to energy and distribution costs.
• Merrill Lynch & Co. (NYSE: MER) reported worse-than-expected Q2 results on further write downs.
• Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) earnings surged but investors were put off by its full-year guidance.
• Procter & Gamble Co. (NYSE: PG) reaffirmed its guidance following the Kimberly-Clark warnings.
• United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX) beat Q2 estimates, lifting shares from a recent 52-week low.
• ValueClick Inc. (NASDAQ: VCLK) posted weak results and warned about the second half of the year.

For more highlights from this week, see: Google, Intel, JPMorgan, Coca-Cola, Nokia and others

The earnings crunch continues next week. Among companies scheduled to report are Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), Merck (NYSE: MRK), Texas Intruments (NYSE: TXN), Caterpillar (NYSE: CAT), Halliburton (NYSE: HAL), United Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS), Wachovia (NYSE: WB), Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Anheuser-Busch (NYSE: BUD), AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T), McDonald's (NYSE: MCD), PepsiCo (NYSE: PEP), Pfizer (NYSE: PFE), Boeing (NYSE: BA), Hershey (NYSE: HSY), and Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV).

Visit AOL Money & Finance for more earnings coverage.

• PDUFA date for Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE: BMY)'s supplemental Biologics License Application for Orencia for the treatment of Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis.
• Alcoa Inc. (NYSE: AA) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 5pm.

• Chattem Inc. (NASDAQ: CHTT) to report Q1 earnings; conference call at 9:00am.
• FOMC to release minutes of the March 18th meeting at 2:00pm.
• Embraer-Empr Bras Aeronautica (ADR) (NYSE: ERJ) conference call to announce new midsize & midlight executive jet concepts at 6:00pm.