Mesa Laboratories, Inc. (MLAB) vs Sono-Tek Corporation (SOTK)

Mesa Laboratories, Inc. and Sono-Tek Corporation are both Scientific & Technical Instruments companies. Mesa Laboratories, Inc. is the larger, with a market value of $714.8M against $96.0M — 7.4× the size. Sono-Tek Corporation trades at the lower P/E: 50.0× against 142×. Sono-Tek Corporation grew revenue faster over the last twelve months: 4.37% against 3.04%. Sono-Tek Corporation has the higher net margin (9.32% vs 1.92%) and the higher return on invested capital (41.5% vs 4.67%). Across the 22 metrics below, Sono-Tek Corporation leads on 12 and Mesa Laboratories, Inc. on 10.

Valuation

Metric MLAB SOTK Scientific & Technical Instruments median
P/E 142.42 49.96 33.25
P/S 2.77 4.50 4.50
P/B 3.67 4.60 2.90
Price to free cash flow 13.10 13.43 24.81
EV/EBITDA 17.72 28.94 17.92
EV/Sales 3.22 3.76 4.71
Earnings yield 0.70% 2.00% 0.60%
Free cash flow yield 7.63% 7.45% 1.27%

Profitability

Metric MLAB SOTK Scientific & Technical Instruments median
Gross margin 64.21% 52.48% 45.75%
Operating margin 9.00% 10.23% 7.34%
Net margin 1.92% 9.32% 1.56%
Free cash flow margin 21.17% 33.63% 5.84%
Return on equity 2.66% 10.08% 2.87%
Return on assets 1.12% 8.09% 0.99%
Return on invested capital 4.67% 41.53% 3.88%

Growth

Metric MLAB SOTK Scientific & Technical Instruments median
Revenue growth (TTM) 3.04% 4.37% 11.15%
EPS growth (last fiscal year) 436.11% 37.50% 11.47%
Revenue growth, 5-year CAGR 13.22% 7.11% 7.89%
Net income growth, 5-year CAGR 15.44% 10.01% 0.00%

Health

Metric MLAB SOTK Scientific & Technical Instruments median
Debt to equity 0.76 0.00 0.00
Current ratio 1.79 4.42 2.24
Net debt to EBITDA 2.98 (5.94) 0.44

Dividend

Metric MLAB SOTK Scientific & Technical Instruments median
Dividend yield 0.52% — 0.58%
Payout ratio 0.76 — 0.36

Size

Metric MLAB SOTK Scientific & Technical Instruments median
Market cap 714.81m 95.95m 444.25m

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