Mesa Laboratories, Inc. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.16 (NASDAQ:MLAB)

Mesa Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:MLAB) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, January 7th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a dividend of 0.16 per share by the medical instruments supplier on Monday, March 17th. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th.

Mesa Laboratories has a dividend payout ratio of 5.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Mesa Laboratories to earn $7.82 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.64 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 8.2%.

Mesa Laboratories Stock Performance

Mesa Laboratories stock opened at $138.91 on Wednesday. Mesa Laboratories has a twelve month low of $83.68 and a twelve month high of $147.34. The company has a quick ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 0.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65. The company has a market capitalization of $754.42 million, a P/E ratio of -3.05 and a beta of 0.82. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $122.69 and its 200 day moving average is $119.60.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Mesa Laboratories news, CEO Gary M. Owens sold 2,518 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.62, for a total value of $286,095.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 45,888 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,213,794.56. The trade was a 5.20 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 4.40% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. StockNews.com lowered Mesa Laboratories from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Mesa Laboratories from $120.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st.

About Mesa Laboratories

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.