Mesa Laboratories (NASDAQ:MLAB) Shares Gap Down After Earnings Miss

Mesa Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:MLAB)’s stock price gapped down before the market opened on Wednesday after the company announced weaker than expected quarterly earnings. The stock had previously closed at $113.20, but opened at $110.87. Mesa Laboratories shares last traded at $104.77, with a volume of 5,017 shares traded.

The medical instruments supplier reported $1.65 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.75 by ($1.10). Mesa Laboratories had a negative net margin of 104.92% and a positive return on equity of 30.23%.

Mesa Laboratories Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 30th will be given a dividend of $0.16 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 30th. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.61%. Mesa Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -1.38%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Mesa Laboratories

In related news, CEO Gary M. Owens sold 21,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 19th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.91, for a total value of $2,602,110.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 43,337 shares in the company, valued at $5,369,887.67. The trade was a 32.64% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 4.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Mesa Laboratories

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Mesa Laboratories by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,755 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $231,000 after buying an additional 73 shares during the period. Berry Wealth Group LP boosted its position in Mesa Laboratories by 5.3% in the fourth quarter. Berry Wealth Group LP now owns 1,657 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $219,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in Mesa Laboratories by 8.3% in the fourth quarter. Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC now owns 573,037 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $75,566,000 after purchasing an additional 43,927 shares during the last quarter. Choreo LLC lifted its position in shares of Mesa Laboratories by 38.0% during the 4th quarter. Choreo LLC now owns 5,052 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $667,000 after buying an additional 1,392 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Mesa Laboratories by 9.3% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 38,359 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $5,058,000 after purchasing an additional 3,252 shares in the last quarter. 90.60% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Mesa Laboratories Price Performance

The business has a fifty day moving average of $116.64 and a 200-day moving average of $126.37. The firm has a market cap of $566.33 million, a PE ratio of -2.26 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a current ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61.

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.