RxSight (NASDAQ:RXST) vs. Mesa Laboratories (NASDAQ:MLAB) Head-To-Head Analysis

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

Insider & Institutional Ownership

78.8% of RxSight shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 90.6% of Mesa Laboratories shares are owned by institutional investors. 9.6% of RxSight shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 4.9% of Mesa Laboratories shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

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

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
RxSight	-21.93%	-11.56%	-10.31%
Mesa Laboratories	-0.26%	24.49%	9.03%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares RxSight and Mesa Laboratories”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
RxSight	$139.93 million	2.37	-$27.45 million	($0.80)	-10.14
Mesa Laboratories	$240.98 million	1.64	-$1.97 million	($0.14)	-511.86

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

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for RxSight and Mesa Laboratories, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
RxSight	3	9	1	0	1.85
Mesa Laboratories	1	2	0	0	1.67

RxSight currently has a consensus target price of $10.00, indicating a potential upside of 23.30%. Mesa Laboratories has a consensus target price of $67.00, indicating a potential downside of 6.50%. Given RxSight’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts plainly believe RxSight is more favorable than Mesa Laboratories.

Risk & Volatility

RxSight has a beta of 1.17, indicating that its stock price is 17% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Mesa Laboratories has a beta of 0.86, indicating that its stock price is 14% less volatile than the S&P 500.

About RxSight

RxSight, Inc., a commercial-stage medical device company, engages in the research and development, manufacture, and sale of light adjustable intraocular lenses (LAL) used in cataract surgery in the United States and internationally. It offers RxSight system that enables doctors to customize and enhance the visual acuity for patients after cataract surgery. The company's RxSight system includes RxSight Light Adjustable Lens, a special photosensitive material that changes shape and power. RxSight light delivery device, an office-based light treatment device that delivers UV light in a programmed pattern to modify the LAL based on the visual correction needed to achieve desired vision after cataract surgery. It primarily serves cataract doctors. The company was formerly known as Calhoun Vision, Inc. and changed its name to RxSight, Inc. in February 2017. RxSight, Inc. was incorporated in 1997 and is headquartered in Aliso Viejo, 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.