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Maker of liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry instruments used for pharmaceutical quality control and scientific research.
Maker of liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry instruments used for pharmaceutical quality control and scientific research.
Sells chromatography instruments once, then earns recurring revenue from the columns, chemicals and service contracts needed to run them. Drugmakers' quality-control labs are the biggest buyers, and validated methods make them reluctant to switch instruments. It agreed in 2025 to combine with BD's biosciences and diagnostics business.
Moat: narrow (installed base, switching costs, brand). Long-established installed base in pharma QA/QC labs where chromatography methods are validated and hard to switch.
Headquarters: Milford, Massachusetts, USA · Founded: 1958 · Employees: 7,900
Size Waters (WAT) is a United States Health Care company (Medical Specialties) with a market value of $45.0B, the 278th largest of 3,117 United States companies the cockpit tracks. Shares closed at $457.60 on 6 Nov 2026.
Performance Over six months the shares gained 28.9%, against +25.1% for the median peer and -1.1% for the United States market (cap-weighted) — 9th highest of 21 in its peer set.
Growth Revenue grew 80.7% over the last twelve months (peer median +8.5%); the operating margin is 10.0% (peer median 21.2%).
Valuation It trades at 28.6× forward earnings against a peer median of 26.7× (8th most expensive of 21).
Price implies For today's price to make sense, revenue must grow about 46% a year for seven years (Req g). Recent delivered growth is +6%, so the hurdle is +40 pp: the price needs faster growth than the company has been delivering — of companies that just grew 25–50% a year, 93.8% slowed down over the next four years.
Capital Return on invested capital runs 7.9 points below its cost of capital (10.1% WACC).
Backlog Backlog (remaining performance obligations) was $495M at 4 Jul 2026, up 48% on a year earlier — 0.1 years of trailing revenue. Backlog detail →
Short interest Short interest is 3.2% of the free float (15 Oct 2026).
Next results Next results expected around 17 Feb 2027 (exchange calendar; dates can move).
| TTM | FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $5.61B | $3.17B | $2.96B | $2.96B | $2.97B |
| Revenue growth | — | +7% | 0% | -1% | — |
| Gross profit | $2.13B | $1.83B | $1.71B | $1.73B | $1.72B |
| EBITDA | $1.42B | $1.10B | $1.04B | $1.01B | $1.02B |
| Net income | $98.2M | $643M | $638M | $642M | $708M |
| Free cash flow | $267M | $516M | $620M | $442M | $436M |
| Capital expenditure | $170M | $113M | $142M | $161M | $183M |
| Total debt | $5.13B | $1.49B | $1.70B | $2.44B | $1.66B |
The default views of Competitor Analysis ▸ Charts, drawn from the same data. Open them in the cockpit to change the axes, pin companies and read every value.
| Company | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Waters WAT | $45.0B | +29% | +81% | 10% | 28.6× | 46.2% |
| Agilent Technologies A | $49.3B | +51% | +9% | 24% | 26.6× | 22.6% |
| Thermo Fisher Scientific TMO | $257B | +50% | +8% | 19% | 25.8× | 20.9% |
| Shimadzu 7701.T | $7.79B | +15% | +6% | 13% | 19.5× | 6.3% |
| Danaher DHR | $162B | +35% | +6% | 21% | 25.3× | 20.5% |
Peer set: Industry: the same industry and sector in any market, nearest in size. This is the same default set the interactive Competitor Analysis opens with.
| Measure | WAT | Peer median | Rank in peer set |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-month return | +6.6% | +11.8% | 7th lowest of 21 |
| 6-month return | +28.9% | +25.1% | 9th highest of 21 |
| Distance from 52-week high | -5.1% | -8.5% | 7th highest of 21 |
| Revenue growth (TTM) | +80.7% | +8.5% | highest of 21 |
| Operating margin | 10.0% | 21.2% | 2nd lowest of 21 |
| Forward P/E | 28.6× | 26.7× | 8th most expensive of 21 |
| Growth the price implies (Req g, 7 yrs) | 46.2% | 14.5% | most demanding of 21 |
| Growth delivered (Del g) | +6.0% | +9.7% | 4th lowest of 21 |
| Hurdle (Req g minus delivered) | +40.2 pp | +2.8 pp | most demanding of 21 |
| ROIC minus cost of capital | -7.9 pp | +5.2 pp | lowest of 21 |
| EV / EBITDA | 34.9× | 19.5× | most expensive of 20 |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 3.2× | 0.9× | most indebted of 20 |
| Company | Market | Market cap | 6M return | Revenue growth | Op. margin | Forward P/E | Req g | Delivered g |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Waters WAT | United States | $45.0B | +29% | +81% | 10% | 28.6× | 46.2% | +6.0% |
| Hoya 7741.T | Japan | $47.4B | -23% | +13% | 31% | 26.7× | 13.3% | +11.6% |
| Agilent Technologies A | United States | $49.3B | +51% | +9% | 24% | 26.6× | 22.6% | +5.4% |
| Medline MDLN | United States | $52.1B | 0% | +12% | 6% | 26.1× | 17.1% | +9.9% |
| Idexx Laboratories IDXX | United States | $53.3B | +21% | +12% | 32% | 41.5× | 28.0% | +9.7% |
| Alcon ALC.SW | Switzerland | $37.5B | +22% | -1% | 11% | 21.4× | 12.9% | +6.1% |
| GE HealthCare GEHC | United States | $37.2B | +30% | +7% | 14% | 15.4× | 4.3% | +3.7% |
| Siemens Healthineers SHL.DE | Germany | $55.9B | +31% | -1% | 15% | 18.9× | 9.0% | +10.1% |
| Becton Dickinson BDX | United States | $57.7B | +43% | -3% | 15% | 16.0× | 9.6% | +6.3% |
| Mettler Toledo MTD | United States | $34.5B | +53% | +7% | 28% | 33.9× | 20.3% | +5.5% |
| Edwards Lifesciences EW | United States | $58.9B | +28% | +15% | 29% | 31.4× | 17.2% | +6.7% |
| Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics 300760.SZ | China | $33.4B | +9% | +5% | 28% | 27.1× | 0.9% | +9.7% |
| ResMed RMD | United States | $33.1B | +14% | +9% | 34% | 19.1× | 4.9% | +12.1% |
| Boston Scientific BSX | United States | $62.0B | -21% | +9% | 21% | 13.8× | 5.0% | +15.2% |
| Illumina ILMN | United States | $32.2B | +50% | +6% | 21% | 35.7× | 27.1% | +6.0% |
| Dexcom DXCM | United States | $29.6B | +31% | +13% | 24% | 27.0× | 18.5% | +19.3% |
| West Pharmaceutical Services WST | United States | $27.9B | +23% | +13% | 23% | 39.8× | 25.2% | +7.5% |
| Sartorius Stedim Biotech DIM.PA | France | $24.7B | +38% | +4% | 19% | 45.5× | 33.1% | +9.2% |
| Steris STE | United States | $24.6B | +22% | +8% | 20% | 21.4× | 13.7% | +13.8% |
| Terumo 4543.T | Japan | $23.4B | +25% | +14% | 17% | 24.6× | 8.7% | +13.0% |
| Straumann STMN.SW | Switzerland | $20.4B | +25% | +2% | 21% | 31.9× | 15.2% | +12.8% |
Waters reported $495M of remaining performance obligations at 4 Jul 2026, up 48% from a year earlier and down 5% from the previous quarter. That is 0.1 years of trailing revenue already under contract. Book-to-bill last quarter: 0.98.