profit from every $100 of sales.
$0$100
Waters
$460.25-0.42% today
+21.3% in 1 year
1-year low $283.321-year high $480.07
Trading close to its highest price of the past year.
The essentials
Four questions every investor asks, answered in one line each.
more sales each year, on average, 2020 to 2025.
0%20% a year
You pay $140.76 for every $1 of profit it makes in a year.
CheapExpensive
of earnings would pay off all its debt.
No debt5 years
Money in, money out
What Waters sold, what it kept, and what it did with the cash.
Sales went from $2.97 billion in 2022 to $3.17 billion in 2025, with $643 million of profit last year.
SalesProfit
Waters handed back 3% of the cash it generated last year.
Buybacks $15M
Free cash flow 2025$540M
Bought back its own shares$15M
Paid as dividends–
Cash vs. debt$588M vs. $1.5B
Waters vs. similar companies
Waters grows in the middle of these 5 and is the most expensive for its profits.
| Company | Profit from $100 of sales | Sales growth a year | Price per $1 of profit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Waters | 140.8× · Very expensive | ||
 Thermo Fisher Scientific | 38.7× · Expensive | ||
 Danaher | 45.4× · Expensive | ||
 WuXi AppTec | 25.8× · Fair price | ||
 Lonza Group | No profit yet |
Compare Waters with Agilent Technologies
AI analysis
An AI analyst reads Waters's last five years, its segments, earnings, insiders and peers, and writes the bull case, the bear case and what the price expects.
Run the AI analysisFull statementsIncome, balance sheet and cash flow, year by year
Income statement
| In millions of USD | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2,365 | 2,786 | 2,972 | 2,956 | 2,958 | 3,165 | |
| 1,359 | 1,629 | 1,724 | 1,761 | 1,758 | 1,876 | |
| 645 | 822 | 883 | 818 | 838 | 803 | |
| 786 | 983 | 1,017 | 1,001 | 1,036 | 1,031 | |
| 522 | 693 | 708 | 642 | 638 | 643 | |
| 8.36 | 11.17 | 11.73 | 10.84 | 10.71 | 10.76 | |
| 57.4% | 58.5% | 58.0% | 59.6% | 59.4% | 59.3% | |
| 27.3% | 29.5% | 29.7% | 27.7% | 28.3% | 25.4% | |
| 22.1% | 24.9% | 23.8% | 21.7% | 21.6% | 20.3% |
Balance sheet
| In millions of USD | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total assets | 2,840 | 3,095 | 3,281 | 4,627 | 4,554 | 5,077 |
| Cash | 437 | 501 | 481 | 395 | 325 | 588 |
| Total debt | 1,428 | 1,580 | 1,663 | 2,442 | 1,702 | 1,491 |
| Total liabilities | 2,608 | 2,727 | 2,777 | 3,477 | 2,725 | 2,515 |
| 232 | 368 | 504 | 1,150 | 1,829 | 2,561 | |
| 62 | 62 | 60 | 59 | 60 | 60 | |
| 31.4% | 34.5% | 32.3% | 18.4% | 18.9% | 16.1% | |
| 224.7% | 188.5% | 140.3% | 55.8% | 34.9% | 25.1% |
Cash flow
| In millions of USD | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 791 | 747 | 612 | 603 | 762 | 653 | |
| – | – | 183 | 161 | 142 | 113 | |
| – | – | 428 | 442 | 620 | 540 | |
| Dividends paid | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| 196 | 649 | 626 | 70 | 14 | 15 | |
| 37 | 30 | 43 | 37 | 45 | 54 |
Valuation
- 140.8×
- 32.0×
- 27.19
- 17.6×
- 28.6×
- 167.6×
- 88.6×
- 0.6%
- 0.7%
- 0.0%
Profitability
- 59.3%
- 25.4%
- 20.3%
- 24.5%
- 16.5%
- 22.0%
- 8.0%
- 1.8%
- 2.6%
- 6.6%
Growth
- +6.0%
- +5.2%
- −12.9%
- –
- −0.3%
Financial health
- 0.9×
- 0.58
- 21.3%
- 11.9×
- 1.73
- –
- 0.15
How it ranks in Healthcare
Each dot is where the company stands among every company over $300M in the sector. Further right is better.
Top 14%of 964
Top 16%of 898
Bottom 5%of 651
Bottom 33%of 911
Bottom 40%of 991
What analysts expect
- Average price target
- $402.57
- Range
- $350.00 – $480.00
- 4 analysts
These targets were collected on May 20, 2026 and our analyst feed has not updated since, so we no longer compare them with today's price.
Recent earnings
Our results feed has not updated since May 21, 2026. Results reported after that are not in this table yet.
| Date | EPS | Expected | Surprise |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 5, 2026 | 2.70 | 2.31 | +16.9% |
| Feb 9, 2026 | 4.53 | 4.51 | +0.4% |
| Nov 4, 2025 | 3.40 | 3.21 | +5.9% |
| Aug 4, 2025 | 2.95 | 2.94 | +0.3% |
| May 6, 2025 | 2.25 | 2.22 | +1.4% |
| Feb 12, 2025 | 4.10 | 4.03 | +1.7% |
| Nov 1, 2024 | 2.93 | 2.68 | +9.3% |
| Jul 31, 2024 | 2.63 | 2.56 | +2.7% |
News
No recent news on file.
Insider trades
Our insider feed has not updated since May 26, 2026. Trades filed after that are not listed yet.
No insider trades on file.
The seven classic investing rulebooks
1/7Passes 1 of 7. Each bar is how well the company fits that investor's published rules, from 0 to 100; 60 or more counts as a pass.
Warren Buffett
56No pass
Benjamin Graham
37No pass
Philip Fisher
56No pass
Peter Lynch
29No pass
Joel Greenblatt
13No pass
Charlie Munger
66Pass
Terry Smith
58No pass
Questions about Waters
Is Waters a good stock to buy?
A strong, very profitable business, priced as if everything goes right. 1 of the 7 famous investors' published rulebooks we apply pass it. Whether it suits you depends on your goals and the price you pay; invest-like never tells anyone to buy or sell. The AI analysis lays out the case for and against. Read the Waters AI analysis
What does Waters do?
Waters Corporation provides analytical workflow solutions in Asia, the Americas, and Europe. The company operates through two segments, Waters and TA. It is in Diagnostics & Research, based in Milford, MA, United States, with 16,000 employees.
Does Waters pay a dividend?
No. Waters does not pay a dividend at the moment; in 2025 it returned $14.7 million to shareholders by buying back its own shares.
Is Waters stock halal?
Yes. Waters passes our halal screen: its business is permitted and its debt is 2% of its market value, under the 30% limit. How we check
How has Waters stock done over the past year?
Up 21.3% over the past twelve months, to $460.25. It traded between $283.32 and $480.07 and is 4.1% below its high.
Who are Waters's competitors?
The largest listed companies in the same industry are Thermo Fisher Scientific, Danaher, WuXi AppTec and Lonza Group. The peers table on this page compares their profit, growth and price with Waters's.
Prices: daily closes to Nov 13, 2026. Fundamentals: company reports via invest-like data.