MLABMesa Laboratories, Inc.
Is it safe?
Mostly sound, with a caveat: comfortable debt (AA), but big price swings.
Rock-solid balance sheet, low leverage. A rule of thumb on leverage, not a credit rating.
Large price swings, high volatility. Worst drawdown -82% · now 12% below its 52-week high.
Where this answer is blind. Altman sits structurally low for utilities and pipelines; Beneish runs high for fast growers, since sales growth alone lifts it; banks and REITs are excluded.
Can MLAB take a bad year?
Mesa Laboratories, Inc. carries $41M of net debt at 1.49× EBITDA: a load its earnings can carry.
Net debt · as at Q1 2027 · under two and a half years of EBITDA, comfortable
- Net debt / EBITDA
- 1.49×
Net debt / EBITDA · 2.77× a year ago · the load is coming down
- Interest cover
- 2.07×
Interest cover · operating profit covers the interest bill, with room to spare
- Annualised volatility
- 58%
Annualised volatility · roughly twice as jumpy as the market
Details›
- Total debtQ1 2027
- $72M
- Cash and short-term investments
- $31M
- Net debt
- $41M
- EBITDA, trailing twelve months
- $28M
- Operating profit, trailing twelve months
- $22M
- Debt / equity
- 0.38×
- Total debt / EBITDA
- 2.60×
- Annualised volatilitytwo years of daily moves
- 58%
- Worst drawdown on file
- −82%
- Below its 52-week high
- 12%
Balance sheet from SEC filings; drawdown and volatility from end-of-day closes; Altman Z from the filed statements.
Scientific & Technical Instruments
Ranks #11 of 12 by RyuScore