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

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 5.9% indicating that 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 Price Performance

Shares of Mesa Laboratories stock opened at $138.91 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $122.69 and its 200 day moving average is $119.60. Mesa Laboratories has a one year low of $83.68 and a one year 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 stock has a market cap of $754.42 million, a P/E ratio of -3.05 and a beta of 0.82.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Gary M. Owens sold 2,518 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.62, for a total value of $286,095.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 45,888 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,213,794.56. This trade represents a 5.20 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate 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.