Forensic Analysis · Industrial & Scientific Instruments · as of Nov 9, 2026
Mesa Laboratories Inc /Co/ (MLAB)
A forensic read on Mesa Laboratories Inc /Co/ built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
D · Weak — demands caution
Forensic grade
Distress
Financial health
0.4
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
3
Forensic signals
3.9%
ROE
3.4%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
Mesa Laboratories Inc /Co/ earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 0.4, placing it in the Distress zone. 3 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by return on invested capital.
What the filings flag
4.1%
FY2026
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is 4.1% in the latest fiscal year and rising across FY2024–FY2026 from -57.4%. After-tax operating profit was ($215M) in FY2024 and $12M in FY2026, with operating income at -125.9% of revenue in FY2024, 6.8% in FY2025 and 7.4% in FY2026. The capital base behind it cannot be compared across FY2024–FY2026: long-term debt is tagged in one of those two fiscal years and not the other, and an untagged line enters this calculation as zero, so any change in the base would be a change in what the filer tagged. FY2024's operating profit carried a $157M goodwill write-off that alone took about 33.1 points off that year's return, so about 33.1 of the 61.5-point rise across FY2024–FY2026 is that charge leaving the base year rather than the capital earning more. A non-cash write-down lowers the reported return in the year it lands.
+10.7%
FY2025→FY2026
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +10.7% relative to their own average in FY2026 — scaled by NOA itself, not by total assets, which is what the Forensic Screens card's own accrual row divides by. Accruals are building faster than is comfortable — part of profit is sitting in the balance sheet rather than turning to cash. The build is led by payables paid down 14% against +1% in cost of sales. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 17% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 10.7%. The two are computed differently: the accruals ratio is the change in net operating assets over average net operating assets, while the cash-flow figure is net income less operating cash flow over that same average. Read them as two results, not one.Accruals ratio: the year-over-year change in net operating assets, relative to their own average.NOA (net operating assets): the money tied up in running the business, operating assets minus operating liabilities.
$157M
FY2024
Goodwill impairments.Took $157M of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2024 ($157M)). Writedowns mean past acquisitions underperformed what was paid for them.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$249.1M
Revenue Growth YoY+3.4%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+7.3%
Net Margin2.7%
Free Cash Flow$39.6M
Return on Equity3.9%
Debt / Equity0.36x
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Mesa Laboratories Inc /Co/'s actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?