Reviewing Mesa Laboratories (NASDAQ:MLAB) and Rapid Micro Biosystems (NASDAQ:RPID)

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

Insider & Institutional Ownership

90.6% of Mesa Laboratories shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 52.6% of Rapid Micro Biosystems shares are owned by institutional investors. 4.9% of Mesa Laboratories shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 30.0% of Rapid Micro Biosystems shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Mesa Laboratories and Rapid Micro Biosystems”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Mesa Laboratories	$240.98 million	1.67	-$1.97 million	($0.14)	-522.43
Rapid Micro Biosystems	$28.05 million	5.31	-$46.89 million	($1.01)	-3.34

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

Risk & Volatility

Mesa Laboratories has a beta of 0.82, indicating that its stock price is 18% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Rapid Micro Biosystems has a beta of 1.29, indicating that its stock price is 29% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Mesa Laboratories and Rapid Micro Biosystems, as provided by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Mesa Laboratories	0	2	1	0	2.33
Rapid Micro Biosystems	0	0	1	1	3.50

Mesa Laboratories presently has a consensus target price of $113.50, suggesting a potential upside of 55.18%. Rapid Micro Biosystems has a consensus target price of $8.00, suggesting a potential upside of 137.39%. Given Rapid Micro Biosystems’ stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Rapid Micro Biosystems is more favorable than Mesa Laboratories.

Profitability

This table compares Mesa Laboratories and Rapid Micro Biosystems’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Mesa Laboratories	-0.26%	24.49%	9.03%
Rapid Micro Biosystems	-145.63%	-63.07%	-48.33%

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.

About Rapid Micro Biosystems

Rapid Micro Biosystems, Inc., a life sciences technology company, provides products for the detection of microbial contamination in the manufacture of pharmaceutical, medical devices, and personal care products in the United States, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, and internationally. The company offers Growth Direct platform, which includes Growth Direct system, proprietary consumables, lab information management system connection software, and customer support and validation services. Its platform automates and modernizes the manual microbial quality control (MQC) testing workflows for therapeutic modalities, such as biologics, vaccines, cell and gene therapies, and sterile injectables. The company also provides onsite technical training services. Its solutions are used in environmental monitoring, water, bioburden, and sterility release testing applications. In addition, the company offers RMBNucleus software for the Growth Direct system; RMBNucleus Mold Alarm signals at the first sign of mold detection; RMBNucleus Central Manager portal streamlines coordination of multiple instruments; and Growth Direct LIMS connection software. Rapid Micro Biosystems, Inc. was formerly known as Genomic Profiling Systems, Inc. and changed its name to Rapid Micro Biosystems, Inc. in January 2007. The company was incorporated in 2006 and is headquartered in Lowell, Massachusetts.