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 paid 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 yield of 0.46%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th.

Mesa Laboratories has a dividend payout ratio of 7.4% meaning 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 Trading Down 3.7 %

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Insider Transactions at Mesa Laboratories

In other news, CEO Gary M. Owens sold 2,518 shares of Mesa Laboratories stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.62, for a total transaction of $286,095.16. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 45,888 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,213,794.56. The trade was a 5.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 4.40% of the company’s stock.

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.