Mesa Laboratories (NASDAQ:MLAB) Cut to "Hold" at Wall Street Zen

Key Points

• Wall Street Zen downgraded Mesa Laboratories from a "buy" to a "hold" rating, reflecting a more cautious outlook on the company's stock performance.
• Wells Fargo & Company revised their price target for Mesa Laboratories, lowering it from $100.00 to $67.00 after raising their rating from "underweight" to "equal weight."
• A significant number of insiders sold shares recently, with senior vice president Brian David Archbold selling 472 shares and CFO John Sakys selling 642 shares at an average price of $97.12 per share.

Mesa Laboratories (NASDAQ:MLAB - Get Free Report) was downgraded by Wall Street Zen from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday.

Separately, Wells Fargo & Company raised Mesa Laboratories from an "underweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $100.00 to $67.00 in a research report on Thursday, August 7th.

Mesa Laboratories Stock Performance

Shares of MLAB stock traded up $3.19 during trading on Friday, reaching $66.46. The company had a trading volume of 40,872 shares, compared to its average volume of 84,515. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $86.07 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $111.29. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 0.66 and a quick ratio of 0.47. Mesa Laboratories has a one year low of $55.45 and a one year high of $155.12. The company has a market capitalization of $365.64 million, a PE ratio of -474.68 and a beta of 0.83.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Mesa Laboratories news, SVP Brian David Archbold sold 472 shares of Mesa Laboratories stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $97.12, for a total value of $45,840.64. Following the transaction, the senior vice president directly owned 558 shares of the company's stock, valued at $54,192.96. The trade was a 45.83% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO John Sakys sold 642 shares of Mesa Laboratories stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $97.12, for a total value of $62,351.04. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 12,865 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,249,448.80. This represents a 4.75% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 3,053 shares of company stock valued at $296,507 in the last three months. Company insiders own 4.90% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Mesa Laboratories

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. State of Wyoming grew its holdings in shares of Mesa Laboratories by 501.4% during the 1st quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 427 shares of the medical instruments supplier's stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 356 shares in the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP acquired a new stake in shares of Mesa Laboratories during the 1st quarter worth approximately $67,000. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Mesa Laboratories during the 4th quarter worth approximately $92,000. US Bancorp DE grew its holdings in shares of Mesa Laboratories by 48.3% during the 1st quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 1,323 shares of the medical instruments supplier's stock worth $157,000 after purchasing an additional 431 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its holdings in shares of Mesa Laboratories by 72.9% during the 4th quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 1,328 shares of the medical instruments supplier's stock worth $175,000 after purchasing an additional 560 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.60% of the company's stock.

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.