Mesa Laboratories (NASDAQ:MLAB) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Mesa Laboratories (NASDAQ:MLAB) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report report published on Saturday.

MLAB has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Mesa Laboratories from $83.00 to $94.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 4th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Mesa Laboratories in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Mesa Laboratories from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Mesa Laboratories currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $94.00.

Mesa Laboratories Price Performance

Shares of Mesa Laboratories stock opened at $90.81 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.86, a current ratio of 1.94 and a quick ratio of 1.45. Mesa Laboratories has a one year low of $55.45 and a one year high of $155.12. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $82.35 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $75.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $501.27 million, a P/E ratio of 141.89 and a beta of 0.89.

Mesa Laboratories (NASDAQ:MLAB) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 3rd. The medical instruments supplier reported $3.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.41 by $0.66. Mesa Laboratories had a net margin of 1.51% and a return on equity of 22.02%. The firm had revenue of $65.13 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $63.23 million. Analysts forecast that Mesa Laboratories will post 8 EPS for the current year.

Mesa Laboratories Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Stockholders of record on Saturday, February 28th will be paid a dividend of $0.16 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 27th. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Mesa Laboratories’s payout ratio is presently 100.00%.

Institutional Trading of Mesa Laboratories

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of MLAB. Royal Bank of Canada grew its holdings in shares of Mesa Laboratories by 1.2% during the 1st quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 30,772 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $3,652,000 after acquiring an additional 353 shares during the period. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Mesa Laboratories during the first quarter valued at approximately $335,000. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Mesa Laboratories by 4.9% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 3,068 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $364,000 after purchasing an additional 143 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its stake in Mesa Laboratories by 3.6% in the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 19,977 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $2,370,000 after purchasing an additional 685 shares during the period. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC raised its holdings in Mesa Laboratories by 9,667.7% in the second quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 6,056 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $571,000 after purchasing an additional 5,994 shares in the last quarter. 90.60% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Mesa Laboratories

Mesa Laboratories, Inc (NASDAQ: MLAB) is a global provider of instrumentation products designed for critical process monitoring, testing and calibration. Headquartered in Lakewood, Colorado, the company serves a diverse set of end markets including healthcare, pharmaceutical, food and beverage, energy and industrial sectors. With a focus on precision measurement and validation, Mesa Laboratories helps customers ensure regulatory compliance, product safety and operational efficiency across complex manufacturing and sterilization processes.

The company’s product portfolio encompasses biological and chemical indicators for sterilization process validation, digital data loggers and sensors for environmental monitoring, and optical gas analyzers with sample-conditioning solutions for oil, gas and petrochemical applications.