Pacer Advisors Inc. Boosts Stake in Mesa Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:MLAB)

Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Mesa Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ:MLAB) by 4.3% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 1,755 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock after acquiring an additional 73 shares during the quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Mesa Laboratories were worth $231,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. State Street Corp boosted its stake in Mesa Laboratories by 9.2% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 214,148 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $27,809,000 after buying an additional 18,128 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Mesa Laboratories by 38.6% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 62,609 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $8,130,000 after purchasing an additional 17,450 shares during the period. Eagle Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in Mesa Laboratories by 10.9% in the 3rd quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 165,955 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $19,722,000 after purchasing an additional 16,293 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC raised its position in Mesa Laboratories by 357.4% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 8,837 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock valued at $1,148,000 after purchasing an additional 6,905 shares during the period. Finally, Rice Hall James & Associates LLC lifted its stake in Mesa Laboratories by 44.1% during the third quarter. Rice Hall James & Associates LLC now owns 22,108 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $2,871,000 after purchasing an additional 6,766 shares in the last quarter. 90.60% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, StockNews.com cut Mesa Laboratories from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th.

Mesa Laboratories Trading Up 2.5 %

MLAB opened at $137.27 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.51 and a current ratio of 0.70. Mesa Laboratories, Inc. has a one year low of $83.68 and a one year high of $152.75. The company has a market cap of $745.38 million, a P/E ratio of -3.01 and a beta of 0.83. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $133.26 and its 200-day simple moving average is $125.57.

Mesa Laboratories (NASDAQ:MLAB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 4th. The medical instruments supplier reported $2.07 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.41 by $0.66. Mesa Laboratories had a negative net margin of 107.56% and a positive return on equity of 28.52%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Mesa Laboratories, Inc. will post 7.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mesa Laboratories Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a dividend of $0.16 per share. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. Mesa Laboratories’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is -1.40%.

Mesa Laboratories 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.