Mesa Laboratories (NASDAQ:MLAB) versus Semler Scientific (NASDAQ:SMLR) Critical Survey

Mesa Laboratories (NASDAQ:MLAB) and Semler Scientific (NASDAQ:SMLR) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, valuation, earnings, institutional ownership and risk.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for Mesa Laboratories and Semler Scientific, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Mesa Laboratories	1	2	0	0	1.67
Semler Scientific	0	1	4	0	2.80

Mesa Laboratories currently has a consensus price target of $67.00, indicating a potential downside of 11.85%. Semler Scientific has a consensus price target of $74.25, indicating a potential upside of 169.02%. Given Semler Scientific’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Semler Scientific is more favorable than Mesa Laboratories.

Volatility & Risk

Mesa Laboratories has a beta of 0.89, suggesting that its share price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Semler Scientific has a beta of 1.44, suggesting that its share price is 44% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Mesa Laboratories and Semler Scientific”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Mesa Laboratories	$245.26 million	1.71	-$1.97 million	($0.32)	-237.53
Semler Scientific	$42.98 million	9.72	$40.90 million	$2.43	11.36

Semler Scientific has lower revenue, but higher earnings than Mesa Laboratories. Mesa Laboratories is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Semler Scientific, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

90.6% of Mesa Laboratories shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 49.4% of Semler Scientific shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.9% of Mesa Laboratories shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 16.4% of Semler Scientific shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Mesa Laboratories and Semler Scientific’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Mesa Laboratories	-0.26%	24.49%	9.03%
Semler Scientific	86.20%	43.84%	32.88%

Summary

Semler Scientific beats Mesa Laboratories on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

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. This segment also provides testing and laboratory services to the dental and pharmaceutical industries. The Clinical Genomics segment offers MassARRAY, a genetic analysis tool system, and related consumables, including chips, panels, and chemical reagent solutions used by clinical labs to analyze DNA samples for inherited genetic disease testing, pharmacogenetics, oncology testing, infectious disease testing, doping and toxicology testing, and other differentiated applications for use in research. The Biopharmaceutical Development segment provides automated systems, such as Gyrolab xPand and Gyrolab xPlore hardware and software, Gyrolab Bioaffy consumable microfluidic disks, Gyrolab kits and Rexxip buffers for protein analysis; PurePep Chorus and Symphony instruments for peptide synthesis; and PurePep EasyClean products for purifying peptides. The Calibration Solutions segment offers quality control products to measure and calibrate critical parameters in applications, such as environmental and process monitoring, dialysis, gas flow, air quality, and torque testing in medical device and pharmaceutical manufacturing, laboratory, and hospital environments. This segment’s products include continuous monitoring systems, dialysate meters and consumables, data loggers, gas flow calibration and air sampling equipment, and torque testing systems, offered under DialyGuard, ViewPoint, DataTrace, DryCal, and BGI brands. The company was incorporated in 1982 and is headquartered in Lakewood, Colorado.

About Semler Scientific

Semler Scientific, Inc. provides technology solutions to enhance the clinical effectiveness and efficiency of healthcare providers in the United States. The company’s products include QuantaFlo, a four-minute in-office blood flow test that enables healthcare providers to use blood flow measurements as part of their examinations of a patient’s vascular condition. It also offers Insulin Insights, a software program that is used by a healthcare provider to optimize outpatient insulin dosing. The company’s products serve cardiologists, internists, nephrologists, endocrinologists, podiatrists, family practitioners, healthcare insurance plans, integrated delivery networks, independent physician groups, and companies contracting with the healthcare industry, such as risk assessment groups and retailers. It offers its products through sales representatives and distributors. The company was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.