Waters Corporation

NYSE:WAT Stock Report

Market Cap: US$19.1b

Waters Valuation

Is WAT undervalued compared to its fair value, analyst forecasts and its price relative to the market?

Valuation Score

4/6

Valuation Score 4/6

  • Below Fair Value

  • Significantly Below Fair Value

  • Price-To-Earnings vs Peers

  • Price-To-Earnings vs Industry

  • Price-To-Earnings vs Fair Ratio

  • Analyst Forecast

Share Price vs Fair Value

What is the Fair Price of WAT when looking at its future cash flows? For this estimate we use a Discounted Cash Flow model.

Discounted Cash Flow
Simply Wall St
US$421.07
Fair Value
23.8% undervalued intrinsic discount
20
Number of Analysts

Below Fair Value: WAT ($321.01) is trading below our estimate of fair value ($421.07)

Significantly Below Fair Value: WAT is trading below fair value by more than 20%.

Key Valuation Metric

Which metric is best to use when looking at relative valuation for WAT?

Key metric: As WAT is profitable we use its Price-To-Earnings Ratio for relative valuation analysis.

The above table shows the Price to Earnings ratio for WAT. This is calculated by dividing WAT's market cap by their current earnings.
What is WAT's PE Ratio?
PE Ratio29.9x
EarningsUS$637.83m
Market CapUS$19.07b

Price to Earnings Ratio vs Peers

How does WAT's PE Ratio compare to its peers?

The above table shows the PE ratio for WAT vs its peers. Here we also display the market cap and forecasted growth for additional consideration.
CompanyForward PEEstimated GrowthMarket Cap
Peer Average23.9x
MTD Mettler-Toledo International
24.3x7.1%US$20.9b
WST West Pharmaceutical Services
29.6x9.2%US$14.6b
IQV IQVIA Holdings
18.5x13.6%US$25.4b
A Agilent Technologies
23.2x9.2%US$29.2b
WAT Waters
29.9x8.7%US$19.1b

Price-To-Earnings vs Peers: WAT is expensive based on its Price-To-Earnings Ratio (29.9x) compared to the peer average (23.9x).

Price to Earnings Ratio vs Industry

How does WAT's PE Ratio compare vs other companies in the US Life Sciences Industry?

0 CompaniesPrice / EarningsEstimated GrowthMarket Cap
No more companies available in this PE range
WAT 29.9xIndustry Avg. 32.1xNo. of Companies3PE020406080100+
0 CompaniesEstimated GrowthMarket Cap
No more companies

Price-To-Earnings vs Industry: WAT is good value based on its Price-To-Earnings Ratio (29.9x) compared to the North American Life Sciences industry average (32.1x).

Price to Earnings Ratio vs Fair Ratio

What is WAT's PE Ratio compared to its Fair PE Ratio? This is the expected PE Ratio taking into account the company's forecast earnings growth, profit margins and other risk factors.

WAT PE Ratio vs Fair Ratio.
Fair Ratio
Current PE Ratio29.9x
Fair PE Ratio23.3x

Price-To-Earnings vs Fair Ratio: WAT is expensive based on its Price-To-Earnings Ratio (29.9x) compared to the estimated Fair Price-To-Earnings Ratio (23.3x).

Analyst Price Targets

What is the analyst 12-month forecast and do we have any statistical confidence in the consensus price target?

The above table shows the analyst WAT forecast and predictions for the stock price in 12 month’s time.
DateShare PriceAverage 1Y Price TargetDispersionHighLow1Y Actual priceAnalysts
CurrentUS$321.01
US$393.19
+22.5%
8.6%US$460.00US$340.00n/a20
Apr ’26US$356.00
US$402.69
+13.1%
7.7%US$460.00US$340.00n/a20
Mar ’26US$377.34
US$399.00
+5.7%
7.2%US$450.00US$340.00n/a19
Feb ’26US$415.48
US$392.11
-5.6%
7.8%US$430.00US$340.00n/a19
Jan ’26US$370.98
US$381.96
+3.0%
8.0%US$430.00US$340.00n/a18
Dec ’25US$384.72
US$375.45
-2.4%
7.5%US$415.00US$325.00n/a17
Nov ’25US$387.21
US$360.16
-7.0%
7.0%US$415.00US$325.00n/a17
Oct ’25US$358.33
US$341.40
-4.7%
6.7%US$380.00US$300.00n/a17
Sep ’25US$346.35
US$340.22
-1.8%
6.7%US$380.00US$300.00n/a17
Aug ’25US$352.53
US$337.73
-4.2%
6.3%US$375.00US$300.00n/a16
Jul ’25US$282.70
US$324.14
+14.7%
5.7%US$358.00US$275.00n/a16
Jun ’25US$308.90
US$326.01
+5.5%
4.8%US$358.00US$295.00n/a16
May ’25US$315.92
US$325.36
+3.0%
4.9%US$350.00US$300.00n/a17
Apr ’25US$344.51
US$323.50
-6.1%
4.8%US$350.00US$300.00US$356.0016
Mar ’25US$346.04
US$323.50
-6.5%
4.8%US$350.00US$300.00US$377.3416
Feb ’25US$324.45
US$299.47
-7.7%
8.2%US$346.50US$250.00US$415.4816
Jan ’25US$329.23
US$281.03
-14.6%
10.4%US$346.50US$230.00US$370.9817
Dec ’24US$288.85
US$272.06
-5.8%
8.7%US$323.00US$230.00US$384.7217
Nov ’24US$240.84
US$289.18
+20.1%
6.1%US$323.00US$260.00US$387.2117
Oct ’24US$274.21
US$299.47
+9.2%
5.2%US$333.00US$270.00US$358.3317
Sep ’24US$281.02
US$302.88
+7.8%
4.5%US$333.00US$275.00US$346.3517
Aug ’24US$274.40
US$296.49
+8.1%
5.8%US$325.00US$270.00US$352.5317
Jul ’24US$266.54
US$309.20
+16.0%
7.4%US$375.00US$280.00US$282.7017
Jun ’24US$256.04
US$313.20
+22.3%
7.3%US$375.00US$280.00US$308.9017
May ’24US$298.22
US$344.91
+15.7%
5.9%US$376.00US$280.00US$315.9217
Apr ’24US$309.63
US$349.88
+13.0%
6.6%US$385.00US$280.00US$344.5116
AnalystConsensusTarget
Consensus Narrative from 20 Analysts
US$393.19
Fair Value
18.4% undervalued intrinsic discount
20
Number of Analysts

Analyst Forecast: Target price is more than 20% higher than the current share price and analysts are within a statistically confident range of agreement.

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Company Analysis and Financial Data Status

DataLast Updated (UTC time)
Company Analysis2025/04/20 21:26
End of Day Share Price 2025/04/17 00:00
Earnings2024/12/31
Annual Earnings2024/12/31

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

Details of the analysis model used to generate this report is available on our Github page, we also have guides on how to use our reports and tutorials on Youtube.

Learn about the world class team who designed and built the Simply Wall St analysis model.

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 41 analysts. 20 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