Mesa Laboratories (NASDAQ:MLAB – Get Free Report) and Veracyte (NASDAQ:VCYT – Get Free Report) are both medical companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their valuation, profitability, dividends, risk, analyst recommendations, earnings and institutional ownership.
Volatility & Risk
Mesa Laboratories has a beta of 0.89, meaning that its share price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Veracyte has a beta of 1.88, meaning that its share price is 88% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Mesa Laboratories and Veracyte, as provided by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Mesa Laboratories | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1.67 |
| Veracyte | 1 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 2.44 |
Institutional & Insider Ownership
90.6% of Mesa Laboratories shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.9% of Mesa Laboratories shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.4% of Veracyte shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Earnings & Valuation
This table compares Mesa Laboratories and Veracyte”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Mesa Laboratories | $240.98 million | 1.80 | -$1.97 million | ($0.32) | -245.88 |
| Veracyte | $445.76 million | 6.87 | $24.14 million | $0.38 | 101.95 |
Veracyte has higher revenue and earnings than Mesa Laboratories. Mesa Laboratories is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Veracyte, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Profitability
This table compares Mesa Laboratories and Veracyte’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Mesa Laboratories | -0.64% | 21.59% | 8.28% |
| Veracyte | 6.12% | 7.23% | 6.58% |
Summary
Veracyte beats Mesa Laboratories on 10 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.
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. This segment also provides testing and laboratory services to the dental and pharmaceutical industries. The Clinical Genomics segment offers MassARRAY, a genetic analysis tool system, and related consumables, including chips, panels, and chemical reagent solutions used by clinical labs to analyze DNA samples for inherited genetic disease testing, pharmacogenetics, oncology testing, infectious disease testing, doping and toxicology testing, and other differentiated applications for use in research. The Biopharmaceutical Development segment provides automated systems, such as Gyrolab xPand and Gyrolab xPlore hardware and software, Gyrolab Bioaffy consumable microfluidic disks, Gyrolab kits and Rexxip buffers for protein analysis; PurePep Chorus and Symphony instruments for peptide synthesis; and PurePep EasyClean products for purifying peptides. The Calibration Solutions segment offers quality control products to measure and calibrate critical parameters in applications, such as environmental and process monitoring, dialysis, gas flow, air quality, and torque testing in medical device and pharmaceutical manufacturing, laboratory, and hospital environments. This segment’s products include continuous monitoring systems, dialysate meters and consumables, data loggers, gas flow calibration and air sampling equipment, and torque testing systems, offered under DialyGuard, ViewPoint, DataTrace, DryCal, and BGI brands. The company was incorporated in 1982 and is headquartered in Lakewood, Colorado.
About Veracyte
Veracyte, Inc. engages in the research, development and commercialization of diagnostic products. The firm’s portfolio includes Afirma, Percepta, and Envisia. It intends to treat thyroid cancer, improve lung cancer screening, and clarify the diagnosis of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. The company was founded by Bonnie H. Anderson and Y. Douglas Dolginow on August 15, 2006 and is headquartered in South San Francisco, CA.
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