Waters Corporation

NYSE:WAT Stock Report

Market Cap: US$21.4b

Waters Valuation

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

Valuation Score

3/6

Valuation Score 3/6

  • 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.

Below Fair Value: WAT ($360.63) is trading below our estimate of fair value ($408.46)

Significantly Below Fair Value: WAT is trading below fair value, but not by a significant amount.

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 Ratio34.4x
EarningsUS$622.64m
Market CapUS$21.40b

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 Average37.6x
WST West Pharmaceutical Services
47.4x12.2%US$23.6b
MTD Mettler-Toledo International
32x7.4%US$25.6b
AVTR Avantor
46.2x36.2%US$14.4b
IQV IQVIA Holdings
24.7x13.5%US$34.7b
WAT Waters
34.4x8.6%US$21.4b

Price-To-Earnings vs Peers: WAT is good value based on its Price-To-Earnings Ratio (34.4x) compared to the peer average (37.6x).

Price to Earnings Ratio vs Industry

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

1 CompanyPrice / EarningsEstimated GrowthMarket Cap
REPC.F RepliCel Life Sciences
0.1xn/aUS$130.00k
No more companies available in this PE range
WAT 34.4xIndustry Avg. 37.5xNo. of Companies4PE020406080100+
1 CompanyEstimated GrowthMarket Cap
No more companies

Price-To-Earnings vs Industry: WAT is good value based on its Price-To-Earnings Ratio (34.4x) compared to the Global Life Sciences industry average (37.5x).

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 Ratio34.4x
Fair PE Ratio26.1x

Price-To-Earnings vs Fair Ratio: WAT is expensive based on its Price-To-Earnings Ratio (34.4x) compared to the estimated Fair Price-To-Earnings Ratio (26.1x).

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$360.63
US$378.69
+5.0%
7.9%US$430.00US$334.72n/a17
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$300.00n/a16
Mar ’25US$346.04
US$323.50
-6.5%
4.8%US$350.00US$300.00n/a16
Feb ’25US$324.45
US$299.47
-7.7%
8.2%US$346.50US$250.00n/a16
Jan ’25US$329.23
US$281.03
-14.6%
10.4%US$346.50US$230.00n/a17
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
Mar ’24US$309.25
US$348.20
+12.6%
6.6%US$385.00US$280.00US$346.0415
Feb ’24US$338.03
US$342.00
+1.2%
7.3%US$380.00US$280.00US$324.4516
Jan ’24US$342.58
US$334.25
-2.4%
6.7%US$376.00US$280.00US$329.2316
Dec ’23US$346.93
US$333.20
-4.0%
6.8%US$376.00US$280.00US$288.8515

Analyst Forecast: Target price is less than 20% higher than the current share price.

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Company Analysis and Financial Data Status

DataLast Updated (UTC time)
Company Analysis2024/12/19 23:41
End of Day Share Price 2024/12/19 00:00
Earnings2024/09/28
Annual Earnings2023/12/31

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 here.

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 .

Analyst Sources

Waters Corporation is covered by 43 analysts. 18 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