Mesa Laboratories, Inc. (MLAB) vs Novanta Inc. (NOVT)

Mesa Laboratories, Inc. and Novanta Inc. are both Scientific & Technical Instruments companies. Novanta Inc. is the larger, with a market value of $5.4B against $769.4M — 7.0× the size. Novanta Inc. trades at the lower P/E: 90.6× against 156×. Novanta Inc. grew revenue faster over the last twelve months: 7.61% against 3.04%. Novanta Inc. has the higher net margin (6.00% vs 1.92%) and the higher return on invested capital (5.12% vs 4.67%). Across the 22 metrics below, Mesa Laboratories, Inc. leads on 11 and Novanta Inc. on 11.

Valuation

Metric MLAB NOVT Scientific & Technical Instruments median
P/E 155.86 90.57 35.93
P/S 3.04 5.74 4.46
P/B 4.02 3.65 3.00
Price to free cash flow 14.34 54.14 24.96
EV/EBITDA 19.16 35.20 19.60
EV/Sales 3.49 5.26 4.98
Earnings yield 0.64% 1.10% 0.53%
Free cash flow yield 6.97% 1.85% 1.12%

Profitability

Metric MLAB NOVT Scientific & Technical Instruments median
Gross margin 64.21% 44.54% 45.75%
Operating margin 9.00% 8.96% 7.34%
Net margin 1.92% 6.00% 1.56%
Free cash flow margin 21.17% 10.59% 5.84%
Return on equity 2.66% 5.11% 2.87%
Return on assets 1.12% 3.38% 0.99%
Return on invested capital 4.67% 5.12% 3.88%

Growth

Metric MLAB NOVT Scientific & Technical Instruments median
Revenue growth (TTM) 3.04% 7.61% 11.28%
EPS growth (last fiscal year) 436.11% (16.95%) —
Revenue growth, 5-year CAGR 13.22% 10.67% 7.89%
Net income growth, 5-year CAGR 15.44% 3.87% 0.00%

Health

Metric MLAB NOVT Scientific & Technical Instruments median
Debt to equity 0.76 0.14 0.00
Current ratio 1.79 4.57 2.24
Net debt to EBITDA 2.98 (0.83) 0.44

Dividend

Metric MLAB NOVT Scientific & Technical Instruments median
Dividend yield 0.69% — 0.72%
Payout ratio 1.88 0.00 0.00

Size

Metric MLAB NOVT Scientific & Technical Instruments median
Market cap 769.43m 5.35b 483.67m

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