Contrasting Semler Scientific (NASDAQ:SMLR) and Mesa Laboratories (NASDAQ:MLAB)

Semler Scientific (NASDAQ:SMLR) and Mesa Laboratories (NASDAQ:MLAB) are both small-cap medical companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, institutional ownership, earnings, risk, dividends, valuation and analyst recommendations.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

49.4% of Semler Scientific shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 90.6% of Mesa Laboratories shares are held by institutional investors. 16.4% of Semler Scientific shares are held by insiders. Comparatively, 4.9% of Mesa Laboratories shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Semler Scientific and Mesa Laboratories, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Semler Scientific	0	1	4	0	2.80
Mesa Laboratories	1	2	0	0	1.67

Semler Scientific currently has a consensus price target of $74.25, indicating a potential upside of 169.02%. Mesa Laboratories has a consensus price target of $67.00, indicating a potential downside of 11.85%. Given Semler Scientific’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, equities research analysts plainly believe Semler Scientific is more favorable than Mesa Laboratories.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Semler Scientific and Mesa Laboratories”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Semler Scientific	$42.98 million	9.72	$40.90 million	$2.43	11.36
Mesa Laboratories	$245.26 million	1.71	-$1.97 million	($0.32)	-237.53

Semler Scientific has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Mesa Laboratories. Mesa Laboratories is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Semler Scientific, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility and Risk

Semler Scientific has a beta of 1.44, indicating that its share price is 44% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Mesa Laboratories has a beta of 0.89, indicating that its share price is 11% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Profitability

This table compares Semler Scientific and Mesa Laboratories’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Semler Scientific	86.20%	43.84%	32.88%
Mesa Laboratories	-0.26%	24.49%	9.03%

Summary

Semler Scientific beats Mesa Laboratories on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Semler Scientific

Semler Scientific, Inc. provides technology solutions to enhance the clinical effectiveness and efficiency of healthcare providers in the United States. The company’s products include QuantaFlo, a four-minute in-office blood flow test that enables healthcare providers to use blood flow measurements as part of their examinations of a patient’s vascular condition. It also offers Insulin Insights, a software program that is used by a healthcare provider to optimize outpatient insulin dosing. The company’s products serve cardiologists, internists, nephrologists, endocrinologists, podiatrists, family practitioners, healthcare insurance plans, integrated delivery networks, independent physician groups, and companies contracting with the healthcare industry, such as risk assessment groups and retailers. It offers its products through sales representatives and distributors. The company was incorporated in 2007 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.

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.