Waters Corporation

NYSE:WAT Stock Report

Market Cap: US$39.4b

Waters Valuation

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

Valuation Score

1/6

Valuation Score 1/6

  • Below Future Cash Flow Value

  • Significantly Below Future Cash Flow Value

  • Price-To-Sales vs Peers

  • Price-To-Sales vs Industry

  • Price-To-Sales 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.

Ultimate guide to DCF valuation for stock investing

Learn how to determine fair value like the best investors in the world.

Below Future Cash Flow Value: WAT ($415.84) is trading below our estimate of future cash flow value ($499.78)

Significantly Below Future Cash Flow Value: WAT is trading below future cash flow 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 barely profitable we use its Price-To-Sales Ratio for relative valuation analysis.

The above table shows the Price to Sales ratio for WAT. This is calculated by dividing WAT's market cap by their current revenue.
What is WAT's PS Ratio?
PS Ratio8.8x
SalesUS$4.64b
Market CapUS$39.42b

Price to Sales Ratio vs Peers

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

The above table shows the PS ratio for WAT vs its peers. Here we also display the market cap and forecasted growth for additional consideration.
CompanyForward PSEstimated GrowthMarket Cap
Peer Average5.6x
IQV IQVIA Holdings
2.4x6.29%US$39.5b
A Agilent Technologies
6.1x6.30%US$41.9b
MTD Mettler-Toledo International
6.9x4.76%US$28.0b
ILMN Illumina
6.9x6.60%US$28.4b
WAT Waters
8.8x12.40%US$39.4b

Price-To-Sales vs Peers: WAT is expensive based on its Price-To-Sales Ratio (8.8x) compared to the peer average (5.6x).

Historical Price to Sales Ratio

Historical Price to Sales Ratio compares a stock's price to its sales over time. Higher ratios indicate that investors are willing to pay more for the stock.

Fetching historical data

Price to Sales Ratio vs Industry

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

10 CompaniesPrice / SalesEstimated GrowthMarket Cap
FTRE Fortrea Holdings
0.6x3.78%US$1.67b
CIRC Circle8 Group
0.1xn/aUS$59.38m
SNCE Science 37 Holdings
0.6x17.47%US$34.67m
HBIO Harvard Bioscience
0.4x4.99%US$31.73m
WAT 8.8xIndustry Avg. 4.1xNo. of Companies10PS03.26.49.612.816+
10 CompaniesEstimated GrowthMarket Cap
No more companies

Price-To-Sales vs Industry: WAT is expensive based on its Price-To-Sales Ratio (8.8x) compared to the US Life Sciences industry average (4.1x).

Price to Sales Ratio vs Fair Ratio

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

WAT PS Ratio vs Fair Ratio.
Fair Ratio
Current PS Ratio8.8x
Fair PS Ratio7.2x

Price-To-Sales vs Fair Ratio: WAT is expensive based on its Price-To-Sales Ratio (8.8x) compared to the estimated Fair Price-To-Sales Ratio (7.2x).

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$415.84
US$436.00
+4.85%
7.06%US$475.00US$349.00n/a23
Aug ’27US$377.31
US$413.26
+9.53%
6.74%US$460.00US$349.00n/a23
Jul ’27US$378.13
US$401.78
+6.26%
8.55%US$460.00US$345.00n/a23
Jun ’27US$378.16
US$397.90
+5.22%
8.81%US$460.00US$345.00n/a21
May ’27US$307.12
US$385.50
+25.52%
11.11%US$470.00US$330.00n/a22
Apr ’27US$299.89
US$393.14
+31.09%
11.33%US$480.00US$330.00n/a22
Mar ’27US$319.38
US$398.05
+24.63%
11.42%US$480.00US$330.00n/a21
Feb ’27US$370.72
US$416.94
+12.47%
9.05%US$480.00US$349.00n/a18
Jan ’27US$379.83
US$407.38
+7.25%
10.03%US$480.00US$348.15n/a16
Dec ’26US$397.79
US$388.58
-2.31%
7.81%US$460.00US$348.15n/a14
Nov ’26US$349.60
US$355.74
+1.76%
9.77%US$460.00US$315.00n/a15
Oct ’26US$319.81
US$347.14
+8.55%
11.14%US$460.00US$300.00n/a14
Sep ’26US$301.80
US$350.24
+16.05%
11.17%US$460.00US$300.00n/a15
Aug ’26US$290.31
US$373.98
+28.82%
11.69%US$465.00US$330.00US$377.3116
Jul ’26US$357.04
US$388.79
+8.89%
9.04%US$460.00US$350.00US$378.1319
Jun ’26US$349.24
US$388.19
+11.15%
9.09%US$460.00US$343.11US$378.1620
May ’26US$341.83
US$390.59
+14.26%
8.91%US$460.00US$340.00US$307.1220
Apr ’26US$356.00
US$402.69
+13.11%
7.65%US$460.00US$340.00US$299.8920
Mar ’26US$377.34
US$399.00
+5.74%
7.16%US$450.00US$340.00US$319.3819
Feb ’26US$415.48
US$392.11
-5.62%
7.77%US$430.00US$340.00US$370.7219
Jan ’26US$370.98
US$381.96
+2.96%
8.01%US$430.00US$340.00US$379.8318
Dec ’25US$384.72
US$375.45
-2.41%
7.51%US$415.00US$325.00US$397.7917
Nov ’25US$387.21
US$360.16
-6.99%
6.98%US$415.00US$325.00US$349.6017
Oct ’25US$358.33
US$341.40
-4.73%
6.74%US$380.00US$300.00US$319.8117
Sep ’25US$346.35
US$340.22
-1.77%
6.70%US$380.00US$300.00US$301.8017
Aug ’25US$352.53
US$337.73
-4.20%
6.26%US$375.00US$300.00US$290.3116
US$436
Fair Value
4.6% undervalued intrinsic discount
23
Number of Analysts

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 Analysis2026/08/19 23:31
End of Day Share Price 2026/08/19 00:00
Earnings2026/07/04
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

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 43 analysts. 23 of those analysts submitted the estimates of revenue or earnings used as inputs to our report. Analysts submissions are updated throughout the day.

AnalystInstitution
Robert BambergerBaird
Catherine Ramsey SchulteBaird
Charles ButlerBarclays