Mesa Laboratories (NASDAQ:MLAB) Trading Up 12.3% on Strong Earnings

Mesa Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:MLAB)’s share price rose 12.3% during mid-day trading on Tuesday after the company announced better than expected quarterly earnings. The company traded as high as $143.94 and last traded at $150.43. Approximately 4,303 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 85% from the average daily volume of 28,974 shares. The stock had previously closed at $133.93.

The medical instruments supplier reported $2.07 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.41 by $0.66. Mesa Laboratories had a negative net margin of 107.56% and a positive return on equity of 28.52%.

Mesa Laboratories Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th will be issued a $0.16 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.47%. Mesa Laboratories’s payout ratio is currently -1.40%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com downgraded shares of Mesa Laboratories from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Mesa Laboratories by 34.1% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 393 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP purchased a new stake in shares of Mesa Laboratories during the third quarter valued at about $70,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Mesa Laboratories in the 2nd quarter valued at about $183,000. Berry Wealth Group LP purchased a new position in shares of Mesa Laboratories in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $204,000. Finally, Amalgamated Bank raised its stake in shares of Mesa Laboratories by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 1,588 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $206,000 after acquiring an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. 90.60% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Mesa Laboratories Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $745.38 million, a P/E ratio of -3.01 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a current ratio of 0.70. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $133.26 and its 200 day moving average is $125.57.

Mesa Laboratories Company Profile

Mesa Laboratories, Inc develops, designs, manufactures, sells, and services life sciences tools and quality control products and services in North America, Europe, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. The Sterilization and Disinfection Control segment offers biological, chemical, and cleaning indicators, used to assess the effectiveness of sterilization decontamination, disinfection, and cleaning processes in the pharmaceutical, medical device, and healthcare industries.