Mesa Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:MLAB) Shares Bought by Principal Financial Group Inc.

Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Mesa Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:MLAB) by 9.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 38,359 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,252 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in Mesa Laboratories were worth $5,058,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in MLAB. Creative Planning boosted its stake in Mesa Laboratories by 100.3% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 5,389 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $700,000 after purchasing an additional 2,698 shares in the last quarter. Amalgamated Bank boosted its stake in Mesa Laboratories by 6.5% during the third quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 1,588 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $206,000 after buying an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in Mesa Laboratories by 90.3% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 14,001 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $1,818,000 after buying an additional 6,643 shares in the last quarter. Geneva Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Mesa Laboratories by 2.0% during the third quarter. Geneva Capital Management LLC now owns 191,976 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $24,930,000 after acquiring an additional 3,732 shares during the period. Finally, Cornercap Investment Counsel Inc. bought a new stake in Mesa Laboratories in the third quarter worth about $493,000. Institutional investors own 90.60% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com lowered shares of Mesa Laboratories from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th.

Mesa Laboratories Price Performance

NASDAQ MLAB opened at $135.44 on Tuesday. Mesa Laboratories, Inc. has a 1 year low of $83.68 and a 1 year high of $155.12. The business’s fifty day moving average is $139.89 and its two-hundred day moving average is $129.46. The stock has a market capitalization of $735.98 million, a P/E ratio of -2.93 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.53 and a current ratio of 0.71.

Mesa Laboratories (NASDAQ:MLAB) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The medical instruments supplier reported $2.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by $0.66. Mesa Laboratories had a positive return on equity of 30.23% and a negative net margin of 104.92%. On average, research analysts forecast that Mesa Laboratories, Inc. will post 8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Mesa Laboratories Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be paid a dividend of $0.16 per share. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. Mesa Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio is presently -1.38%.

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.