AQR Capital Management LLC Decreases Stake in Mesa Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:MLAB)

AQR Capital Management LLC lessened its stake in shares of Mesa Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:MLAB) by 16.8% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 18,003 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock after selling 3,631 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Mesa Laboratories were worth $1,562,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of MLAB. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System grew its position in Mesa Laboratories by 4.0% in the 2nd quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System now owns 2,600 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $226,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its stake in shares of Mesa Laboratories by 6.5% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 2,873 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $316,000 after buying an additional 175 shares during the period. EntryPoint Capital LLC lifted its stake in Mesa Laboratories by 35.2% during the first quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC now owns 741 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $81,000 after purchasing an additional 193 shares during the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board purchased a new stake in Mesa Laboratories during the second quarter worth approximately $26,000. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets lifted its stake in Mesa Laboratories by 4.5% during the first quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 7,565 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $830,000 after purchasing an additional 327 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.60% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Mesa Laboratories

In other news, SVP Brian David Archbold sold 1,499 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $125.00, for a total value of $187,375.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 5.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on Mesa Laboratories from $120.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Wells Fargo & Company assumed coverage on Mesa Laboratories in a report on Tuesday, August 27th. They issued an “underweight” rating and a $120.00 target price on the stock. Finally, StockNews.com raised Mesa Laboratories from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday.

Mesa Laboratories Trading Down 1.6 %

Shares of MLAB stock opened at $122.48 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $125.94 and its 200 day moving average price is $111.85. Mesa Laboratories, Inc. has a 1-year low of $82.86 and a 1-year high of $141.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $662.49 million, a PE ratio of -2.60 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.38, a current ratio of 1.94 and a quick ratio of 1.37.

Mesa Laboratories (NASDAQ:MLAB) last posted its earnings results on Monday, August 5th. The medical instruments supplier reported $2.29 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.74 by $0.55. The company had revenue of $58.17 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $55.90 million. Mesa Laboratories had a positive return on equity of 18.95% and a negative net margin of 111.89%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Mesa Laboratories, Inc. will post 7.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mesa Laboratories Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be issued a $0.16 dividend. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.52%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th. Mesa Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -1.36%.

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.