Waters Corporation

NYSE:WAT Stock Report

Market Cap: US$29.6b

Waters Future Growth

Future criteria checks 1/6

Waters is forecast to grow earnings and revenue by 15.8% and 7.7% per annum respectively. EPS is expected to grow by 15.3% per annum. Return on equity is forecast to be 13.7% in 3 years.

Key information

15.8%

Earnings growth rate

15.28%

EPS growth rate

Life Sciences earnings growth16.0%
Revenue growth rate7.7%
Future return on equity13.66%
Analyst coverage

Good

Last updated05 May 2026

Recent future growth updates

Recent updates

WAT: New Instrument Launches And Reorganized Divisions Will Support Future Upside

Analysts have trimmed their price target on Waters from $480 to $470, citing updated assumptions for significantly higher revenue growth at 37.91%, a profit margin of 17.88%, a prospective P/E of 47.70 and a discount rate of 7.89%. What's in the News Waters plans to globally launch the omniDAWN Multi Angle Light Scattering Photometer in summer 2026, targeting UHPLC and UPLC workflows for absolute molar mass and size measurements across complex analytes such as protein aggregates, viral vectors, lipid nanoparticles, and advanced materials (Key Developments).

WAT: Reorganization And Product Pipeline Will Likely Keep Upside In Check

Analysts have kept their price target for Waters steady at $330.00, citing updated assumptions for slightly higher revenue growth, a wider profit margin, and a higher future P/E multiple as the key drivers behind the unchanged fair value view. What's in the News Launched the Waters omniDAWN Multi-Angle Light Scattering Photometer for UHPLC and UPLC workflows, targeting absolute molar mass and size measurements for complex analytes such as protein aggregates, viral vectors, lipid nanoparticles, and advanced materials.

WAT: New Four Division Model And Materials Focus Will Support Higher Profitability

Analysts have reduced their price target on Waters by about $5 to $393, reflecting small adjustments to fair value assumptions, discount rate, revenue growth, profit margin and future P/E inputs. What's in the News Waters launched the TA Instruments ARES-G3 Rheometer, a next generation system that captures up to 25,000 data points per second, aims to shorten standard test times by up to 80%, and is available for order as part of the materials characterization portfolio (Key Developments).

WAT: New Four Division Model Will Support Higher Long Term Profitability

Analysts have kept their price target for Waters steady at $398.05. This reflects updated views on a slightly lower discount rate, modestly adjusted revenue growth expectations, a higher projected profit margin, and a reduced future P/E assumption.

Waters: Doing Well, Acquired Activities Not So Much

Mar 10

WAT: New Four Division Structure Will Support Higher Long Term Earnings

Analysts have nudged their price target for Waters higher to $398.05 from $394.68, reflecting updated assumptions that combine a higher revenue growth outlook, a lower projected profit margin, and a richer future P/E multiple. What's in the News Waters has closed a transaction and reorganized into four divisions, aligning its operations with high volume testing in regulated applications and adjacent markets such as therapeutics, food, environmental testing, and specialty diagnostics (Key Developments).

WAT: Reorganization And Margin Pressure Will Likely Cap Upside For Now

Analysts now mark their price target for Waters at $330, down from $349, citing updated assumptions around revenue growth, profit margins, discount rate, and future P/E that change their overall valuation framework. What's in the News Waters closed a transaction and reorganized into four divisions focused on high-volume testing and adjacent markets, now grouped as Waters Analytical Sciences, Waters Biosciences, Waters Advanced Diagnostics, and Waters Materials Sciences (company announcement).

WAT: New Detector Launch And Higher Margins Will Likely Disappoint Optimists

Analysts have modestly lifted their price target for Waters to about $349, citing updated assumptions around discount rates, revenue growth, profit margins, and future P/E as the key drivers of this small adjustment from roughly $348.15. What's in the News Waters has scheduled a special or extraordinary shareholders meeting for January 27, 2026, to be held online via proxydocs.com/wat in the United States (Key Developments).

WAT: New Detector Launch And Stable Margins Will Support Future Upside

Analysts kept their price target for Waters steady at US$480.00, with only very small tweaks to discount rate, revenue growth, profit margin, and future P/E assumptions, reflecting fine-tuning rather than a major shift in their view. What's in the News Waters scheduled a special or extraordinary shareholders meeting for January 27, 2026, to be held via proxydocs.com/wat in the United States (company event filing).

WAT: Higher Margins And New Product Launch Will Support Future Upside

Analysts have lifted their price target on Waters to US$480 from about US$424, citing updated assumptions for slightly higher revenue growth, profit margins near 26%, and a modestly higher future P/E multiple. What's in the News Waters scheduled a special or extraordinary shareholders meeting for January 27, 2026, to be held online via proxydocs.com/wat (Special/Extraordinary Shareholders Meeting).

Estimating The Intrinsic Value Of Waters Corporation (NYSE:WAT)

Jan 04
Estimating The Intrinsic Value Of Waters Corporation (NYSE:WAT)

WAT: Future Product Expansion Will Likely Fail To Justify Current Optimism

Analysts have raised their price target on Waters from 300.00 dollars to 348.15 dollars, citing slightly stronger expectations for revenue growth, profit margins, and future valuation multiples. What's in the News Launched a new Charged Aerosol Detector optimized for Empower Software, expanding capabilities for measuring analytes with little or no UV absorption across pharmaceuticals, food, and environmental testing, with shipments expected by April 2026 (company product announcement).

WAT: Future Margin Gains And New Instruments Will Support Measured Earnings Outlook

Narrative Update on Waters Analysts have modestly raised their price target on Waters by approximately $6 per share, reflecting slightly lower discount rate assumptions, a small improvement in projected profit margins, and a marginally higher future P/E multiple that together support a higher fair value estimate. What's in the News Launched a new Charged Aerosol Detector, purpose built for Empower chromatography software, expanding Waters portfolio of LC detectors and strengthening its position in compliant, high sensitivity analysis for low UV analytes, with shipments expected by April 2026 (Key Developments) Unveiled the Xevo Charge Detection Mass Spectrometer to enable high resolution characterization of very large biomolecules that are central to next generation therapeutics, leveraging technology acquired from Indiana University and Megadalton Solutions (Key Developments) Raised full year 2025 guidance and now expects constant currency sales growth of 6.7% to 7.3% and GAAP EPS of 11.10 to 11.20 dollars per diluted share (Key Developments) Issued new guidance for the fourth quarter of 2025, targeting constant currency sales growth of 5.0% to 7.0% and GAAP EPS of 4.10 to 4.20 dollars per diluted share (Key Developments) Completed its multi year share repurchase program announced in January 2019, buying back more than 15.1 million shares for approximately 3.8 billion dollars in total consideration (Key Developments) Valuation Changes The fair value estimate has risen slightly to approximately $395 per share from about $389 per share, reflecting modest valuation upside.

WAT: Future Margins And Expanded Guidance Will Offset Slower Revenue Trends

Narrative Update on Waters: Analyst Price Target Revision Analysts have raised their price target for Waters, increasing the fair value estimate by $5.71 to $388.58. This revision is attributed to improved profit margin projections, even as revenue growth expectations have slowed.

WAT: Revenue Momentum And Expanded Guidance Will Balance Margin Risks Ahead

Analysts have raised their price target for Waters from $355.74 to $382.87. They cite significantly higher expected revenue growth, which outweighs a slight decrease in projected profit margins.

Emerging Technologies And Share Repurchases Will Support Long-Term Market Opportunities

Narrative Update on Waters Analysts have slightly raised their price target for Waters from $351.07 to $355.74. This change is attributed to modest improvements in projected revenue growth and fair value estimates.

Pharmaceutical R&D And Merger Will Unlock Future Market Potential

Analysts have raised their price target for Waters to $351.07 from $347.14, citing expectations of stronger profit margins and steady revenue growth ahead. What's in the News Waters Corporation raised its earnings guidance for the full year 2025 and projects constant currency sales growth between 5.5% and 7.5%.

Risks To Shareholder Returns Are Elevated At These Prices For Waters Corporation (NYSE:WAT)

Sep 19
Risks To Shareholder Returns Are Elevated At These Prices For Waters Corporation (NYSE:WAT)

Pharmaceutical R&D And Merger Will Unlock Future Market Potential

With no changes in revenue growth expectations or discount rate, Waters’ fair value estimate remains stable, as reflected in the unchanged consensus analyst price target of $350.24. What's in the News Completed buyback program with 15,195,844 shares repurchased for $3,790.62 million, representing 22.96% of shares.

Are Investors Undervaluing Waters Corporation (NYSE:WAT) By 36%?

Jul 24
Are Investors Undervaluing Waters Corporation (NYSE:WAT) By 36%?

These 4 Measures Indicate That Waters (NYSE:WAT) Is Using Debt Reasonably Well

Jul 06
These 4 Measures Indicate That Waters (NYSE:WAT) Is Using Debt Reasonably Well

Waters Corporation's (NYSE:WAT) Shares May Have Run Too Fast Too Soon

May 07
Waters Corporation's (NYSE:WAT) Shares May Have Run Too Fast Too Soon

Waters Corporation: Instrument Replacement Cycle Momentum, But Valuation Is A Concern

Feb 21

Weighing In On Waters Corporation: Facing A Valuation Headwind

Jan 29

Waters Corp: Short Reinvestment Runway Diminishes High Multiples

Nov 13

Waters Corp.: Embedded Expectations High Under Present Conditions

Aug 15

Waters Corporation: Still Struggling A Bit

May 24

Waters Corporation: A Great (Share Price) Run

Mar 11

Waters Corporation: High Quality Niche Company In Mass Spectrometry

Dec 28

Waters Corporation: Appealing Levels Are Offset By Weaker Performance

Nov 13

Earnings and Revenue Growth Forecasts

NYSE:WAT - Analysts future estimates and past financials data (USD Millions)
DateRevenueEarningsFree Cash FlowCash from OpAvg. No. Analysts
12/31/20253,165643540653N/A
9/27/20253,106649602728N/A
6/28/20253,046661619745N/A
3/29/20252,983657619759N/A
12/31/20242,958638620762N/A
9/28/20242,905623620752N/A
6/29/20242,877596561705N/A
3/30/20242,909604514669N/A
12/31/20232,956642442603N/A
9/30/20232,995653390571N/A
7/1/20232,992675387572N/A
4/1/20232,966689425610N/A
12/31/20222,972708428612N/A
10/1/20222,950697465631N/A
7/2/20222,901702477641N/A
4/2/20222,868705565727N/A
12/31/20212,786693579747N/A
10/2/20212,736695626797N/A
7/3/20212,671660642802N/A
4/3/20212,509616697857N/A
12/31/20202,365522618791N/A
9/26/20202,295504536715N/A
6/27/20202,278515495691N/A
3/28/20202,358537N/A619N/A
12/31/20192,407592N/A643N/A
9/28/20192,405577N/A633N/A
6/29/20192,406580N/A631N/A
3/30/20192,403591N/A604N/A
12/31/20182,420594N/A604N/A
9/29/20182,39255N/A615N/A
6/30/20182,38051N/A623N/A
3/31/20182,34227N/A699N/A
12/31/20172,30920N/A698N/A
9/30/20172,251548N/A679N/A
7/1/20172,212537N/A674N/A
4/1/20172,190533N/A656N/A
12/31/20162,167522N/A643N/A
10/1/20162,125498N/A623N/A
7/2/20162,099490N/A613N/A
4/2/20162,057467N/A567N/A
12/31/20152,042469N/A573N/A
10/3/20152,040469N/A568N/A
7/4/20152,032467N/A557N/A

Analyst Future Growth Forecasts

Earnings vs Savings Rate: WAT's forecast earnings growth (15.8% per year) is above the savings rate (3.5%).

Earnings vs Market: WAT's earnings (15.8% per year) are forecast to grow slower than the US market (16% per year).

High Growth Earnings: WAT's earnings are forecast to grow, but not significantly.

Revenue vs Market: WAT's revenue (7.7% per year) is forecast to grow slower than the US market (11.2% per year).

High Growth Revenue: WAT's revenue (7.7% per year) is forecast to grow slower than 20% per year.

Earnings per Share Growth Forecasts

Future Return on Equity

Future ROE: WAT's Return on Equity is forecast to be low in 3 years time (13.7%).

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Company Analysis and Financial Data Status

DataLast Updated (UTC time)
Company Analysis2026/05/05 13:02
End of Day Share Price 2026/05/05 00:00
Earnings2026/04/04
Annual Earnings2025/12/31

Data Sources

The data used in our company analysis is from S&P Global Market Intelligence LLC. The following data is used in our analysis model to generate this report. Data is normalised which can introduce a delay from the source being available.

PackageDataTimeframeExample US Source *
Company Financials10 years
  • Income statement
  • Cash flow statement
  • Balance sheet
Analyst Consensus Estimates+3 years
  • Forecast financials
  • Analyst price targets
Market Prices30 years
  • Stock prices
  • Dividends, Splits and Actions
Ownership10 years
  • Top shareholders
  • Insider trading
Management10 years
  • Leadership team
  • Board of directors
Key Developments10 years
  • Company announcements

* Example for US securities, for non-US equivalent regulatory forms and sources are used.

Unless specified all financial data is based on a yearly period but updated quarterly. This is known as Trailing Twelve Month (TTM) or Last Twelve Month (LTM) Data. Learn more.

Analysis Model and Snowflake

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Industry and Sector Metrics

Our industry and section metrics are calculated every 6 hours by Simply Wall St, details of our process are available on Github.

Analyst Sources

Waters Corporation is covered by 39 analysts. 21 of those analysts submitted the estimates of revenue or earnings used as inputs to our report. Analysts submissions are updated throughout the day.

AnalystInstitution
Catherine Ramsey SchulteBaird
Charles ButlerBarclays
Luke SergottBarclays