QualityDipStocks / Health Care · Life Sciences Tools
Waters WAT
Outside our quality screen, so we don’t track its dips. It’s 4% below its 52-week high.
Outside our quality screen, 8% over its Market Value. No fair value estimate for now: its free cash flow is near zero.
- Fair value est.
- n/a
- Market Value
- $427.02price +8%
- Off 52-wk high
- −4%
- Risk vs market
- Market-likebeta 0.92
4 bullish · 5 bearish See why
Key levels
Every level vs today’s $462.72
- 52-wk lowlowest close, 1 year$283.32−38.8%
- Market Valueavg paid since Aug 4$427.02−7.7%
- PriceFri Oct 30 close$462.72you are here
- 52-wk highhighest close, 1 year$480.07+3.7%
Fair value estimate
No estimate for WAT: free cash flow is barely positive ($0.00 a share); a DCF says little. We’d rather show nothing than a made-up number.
Risk vs market
How risk vs market is measured
One year of daily returns (Oct 30 to Oct 30, 252 sessions). Beta = how much WAT moved for each 1% move in the S&P 500 (SPY); 1.0 moves with the market. Volatility is the yearly standard deviation of daily returns. Past behavior, not a forecast.
Moves about in line with the market, and its own price swings are 2.8× the S&P 500’s.
- Beta vs S&P 500
- 0.92
- Volatility
- 35% vs 13% SPY
- Correlation SPY
- 0.33
- Correlation QQQ
- 0.26
Bull vs bear
Rule-based from the data on this page, strongest first. Not advice.
Top bullish points 4 of 5
GrowthSales grew 52% to $4.6B over the last 12 months vs the 12 months before (SEC filings).
Balance sheetPaid down debt: $1.4B at FY2025, 40% less than at FY2023.
Balance sheetDebt / equity of 0.3×, below the 0.7× median for the 67 Health Care companies we cover.
ValuationPrice / book of 3.1×, below the 5.2× median for the 93 Health Care companies we cover.
Top bearish points 5 of 5
ValuationP/E of 283.3× vs a 29.2× median for the 86 Health Care companies we cover.
ProfitabilityReturn on equity fell 31 points in two fiscal years, to 25% in FY2025.
Balance sheetOperating income covers interest only 2.2× over the last 12 months.
QualityDoesn’t pass our quality screen: ROE under 12% and ROIC under 10%; net debt 5.1× EBITDA (limit 3×).
ValuationTrades 8.4% above its Market Value of $427.02, the average price paid since the Aug 4 filing.
Who’s talking about it
Notable investors, executives, analysts and public figures on Waters in the last 48 hours. Headlines as published, each linked. Their words, not ours.
No notable mentions in the last 48 hours. Checked Nov 1, 9:09 PM ET.
Compare with peers
Closest in size in Life Sciences Tools
All fundamentals
P/E 283.3 · FCF yield 0.8% · ROE 2%
Valuation
- P/E
- 283.3×Health Care median 29.2×
- Price / FCF
- 118.4×
- FCF yield
- 0.8%
- EV / EBITDA
- 54.7×
- Price / sales
- 10.16×
- Price / book
- 3.11×
- Market cap
- $47.2Blisted
- Enterprise value
- $51.5B
Growth
- Revenue, 12 months
- $4.6B
- Sales growth, 12 months
- +52.5%vs the 12 months before
- Sales growth, 3 yrs
- +2.1%/yrfrom FY2022
- Diluted EPS, 12 months
- $3.95
- EPS growth, last FY
- +0.5%
- Net income, 12 months
- $167M
- Net income growth
- −75%12 months vs before
Profitability
- Gross margin
- n/agross profit isn't reported (common for service and financial companies)
- Operating margin
- 7.1%
- Net margin
- 3.6%
- FCF margin
- 8.6%
- Return on equity
- 2%
- Return on invested capital
- 1%
Balance sheet
- Cash & short-term inv.
- $539M
- Total debt
- $4.9B
- Net cash
- −$4.3B
- Debt / equity
- 0.32×
- Interest coverage
- 2.2×operating income / interest
Cash flow & returns
- Free cash flow, 12 months
- $399M
- FCF growth, 12 months
- n/anot reported in its SEC filings
- Dividend yield
- 0%
- Payout ratio
- n/anot reported in its SEC filings
- Buybacks, 12 months
- $15M0.0% of market cap
- Share count, 1 year
- n/ano quarterly diluted share count
- Stock-based comp
- $73M
Trailing 12 months to Jul 4, 2026; balance sheet at Jul 4, 2026. From Waters’s SEC filings. Sparklines show up to six fiscal years. n/a means we don’t hold that number, with the reason. How each is computed.
Valuation details
MV $427.02 · FCF value $98.03
Setup & signals
No setup armed
No setup armed, so there’s no trigger or stop to track yet. Reversal signal rules only run on companies that pass our quality screen.
Momentum & 52-week range
RSI 60 · 5 days +2.0%
The business
FCF $0.4B · Sales +113%
- Free cash flow, 12 months$0.4B
- Free-cash-flow yield0.8%
- Free-cash-flow margin9%
- Gross margin51%
- Operating margin8%
- Return on invested capital2%
- Return on equity2%
- Sales growth (latest quarter vs year-ago quarter)+113%
- Net debt / EBITDA5.1×
Next report
Nov 3
- DateTue Nov 3, before the open
- Consensus EPS$3.99
- Year-ago EPS$3.40
- QuarterSep/2026
From Nasdaq’s earnings calendar. A report resets Market Value.
Information only, not investment advice. Fair value estimates and talking points are rule-based model output from public data and can be wrong; stop levels are reference points, not orders. How every number is computed.
WAT is outside our quality screen
One text when a published rule fires on one of the 333 quality companies we track: the ticker, the price, the stop and a link to the numbers. Nothing else.