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

Mesa Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:MLAB - Get Free Report) announced 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th.

Mesa Laboratories has a payout ratio of 5.9% indicating that 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

MLAB traded down $5.28 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $138.91. 46,591 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 39,098. Mesa Laboratories has a fifty-two week low of $83.68 and a fifty-two week high of $147.34. The company has a market capitalization of $754.42 million, a P/E ratio of -3.05 and a beta of 0.82. 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 business has a 50 day moving average price of $122.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $119.60.

Insider Activity

In other Mesa Laboratories news, CEO Gary M. Owens sold 2,518 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.62, for a total value 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 trade represents a 5.20 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 4.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on MLAB. Evercore ISI raised 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. StockNews.com cut Mesa Laboratories from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, November 13th.

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.