Itron, Inc. (ITRI) vs Mesa Laboratories, Inc. (MLAB)

Itron, Inc. and Mesa Laboratories, Inc. are both Scientific & Technical Instruments companies. Itron, Inc. is the larger, with a market value of $4.4B against $667.6M — 6.5× the size. Itron, Inc. trades at the lower P/E: 15.6× against 148×. Mesa Laboratories, Inc. grew revenue faster over the last twelve months: 3.04% against −3.63%. Itron, Inc. has the higher net margin (12.1% vs 1.92%) and the higher return on invested capital (8.09% vs 4.67%). Across the 22 metrics below, Itron, Inc. leads on 15 and Mesa Laboratories, Inc. on 7.

Valuation

Metric ITRI MLAB Scientific & Technical Instruments median
P/E 15.61 147.88 28.21
P/S 1.85 2.88 4.46
P/B 2.50 3.81 3.10
Price to free cash flow 11.70 13.61 24.15
EV/EBITDA 13.95 18.30 18.28
EV/Sales 2.37 3.33 4.64
Earnings yield 6.40% 0.68% 0.68%
Free cash flow yield 8.55% 7.35% 1.98%

Profitability

Metric ITRI MLAB Scientific & Technical Instruments median
Gross margin 40.66% 64.21% 47.24%
Operating margin 13.69% 9.00% 8.96%
Net margin 12.05% 1.92% 1.92%
Free cash flow margin 15.84% 21.17% 10.59%
Return on equity 16.30% 2.66% 2.66%
Return on assets 7.15% 1.12% 1.12%
Return on invested capital 8.09% 4.67% 4.79%

Growth

Metric ITRI MLAB Scientific & Technical Instruments median
Revenue growth (TTM) (3.63%) 3.04% 9.26%
EPS growth (last fiscal year) 25.48% 436.11% 13.24%
Revenue growth, 5-year CAGR 1.72% 13.22% 7.89%
Net income growth, 5-year CAGR 0.00% 15.44% 0.00%

Health

Metric ITRI MLAB Scientific & Technical Instruments median
Debt to equity 0.92 0.76 0.00
Current ratio 2.83 1.79 2.30
Net debt to EBITDA 0.62 2.98 0.45

Dividend

Metric ITRI MLAB Scientific & Technical Instruments median
Dividend yield — 0.50% 0.62%
Payout ratio — 0.76 0.22

Size

Metric ITRI MLAB Scientific & Technical Instruments median
Market cap 4.36b 667.58m 549.07m

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