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

Mesa Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:MLAB) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, January 7th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders 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 yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th.

Mesa Laboratories has a payout ratio of 7.4% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. 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

Shares of MLAB stock traded down $5.28 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $138.91. The company had a trading volume of 46,591 shares, compared to its average volume of 33,845. Mesa Laboratories has a 52-week low of $83.68 and a 52-week high of $147.34. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 0.70 and a quick ratio of 0.51. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $122.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $119.28. The stock has a market cap of $754.42 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.05 and a beta of 0.82.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Insider Activity

In other Mesa Laboratories news, CEO Gary M. Owens sold 2,518 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.62, for a total transaction of $286,095.16. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 45,888 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,213,794.56. This represents a 5.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 4.40% of the company’s stock.

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.