Waters
WAT NYSE· Life Sciences Tools & Services
Last close · Oct 26, 2026
$455.98
KIRA · Stoqly’s AI analyst, in plain words
- Waters had $3.2B of revenue in fiscal 2025, up 7.0% on the year before. Over five years, revenue changed +6.0% a year on average.
- Its operating margin was 25.4%, down 2.6 pts: of every 100 in sales, about 25 is left after running the business.
- Waters made $643M of net profit in fiscal 2025. From fiscal 2016 to 2025, diluted EPS grew 5.9% a year.
- Free cash flow was $540M in fiscal 2025, 17.1% of revenue.
- Waters returned $14.7M to shareholders in fiscal 2025, 3% of free cash flow. The diluted share count rose 0.3%.
- Waters owes $822M more than it holds in cash, about 0.8 years of operating profit.
Market cap
$44.8B
P/E
—
Revenue
$3.2B
Net income
$643M
Free cash flow
$540M
Operating margin
25.4%
Waters in 30 seconds · fiscal 2025
Are sales growing?
+7.0%
Yes. Sales grew 7.0% last year.
Does it make a profit?
20.3%
Yes. It keeps 20.3% of every sale as profit.
Does profit turn into cash?
17.1%
Yes. 17.1% of sales ends up as free cash.
Is debt under control?
0.8x
Yes. It could repay its debt with 0.8 years of operating profit.
How healthy are the accounts?
6 / 9
Mixed. It passes 6 of 9 health tests.
What Waters does
No business description yet.
- Fiscal year ends
- December 31, 2025
- Latest annual report
- 10-K · Feb 23, 2026
- Legal name
- Waters Corporation
- CIK
- 0001000697
Waters · WAT
Results and finances
The last 5 fiscal years. Amounts in USD.
| Fiscal year | FY21 | FY22 | FY23 | FY24 | FY25 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sales and profit | |||||
| Revenue | $2.8B | $3.0B | $3.0B | $3.0B | $3.2B |
| Revenue growth | 17.8% | 6.7% | −0.5% | 0.1% | 7.0% |
| Gross margin | 58.5% | 58.0% | 59.6% | 59.4% | 59.3% |
| Operating margin | 29.5% | 29.4% | 27.7% | 27.9% | 25.4% |
| Net income | $693M | $708M | $642M | $638M | $643M |
| Net margin | 24.9% | 23.8% | 21.7% | 21.6% | 20.3% |
| Diluted EPS | $11.17 | $11.73 | $10.84 | $10.71 | $10.76 |
| Cash | |||||
| Cash from operations | $747M | $612M | $603M | $762M | $653M |
| Capital expenditure | $36.0M | $46.0M | $161M | $143M | $113M |
| Free cash flow | $711M | $566M | $442M | $620M | $540M |
| FCF margin | 25.5% | 19.0% | 15.0% | 21.0% | 17.1% |
| Dividends paid | $0.0M | $0.0M | $0.0M | $0.0M | $0.0M |
| Share buybacks | $649M | $626M | $70.3M | $13.5M | $14.7M |
| Share count change | −0.6% | −2.7% | −1.8% | 0.5% | 0.3% |
| Debt and strength | |||||
| Cash and short-term investments | $481M | $481M | $396M | $325M | $588M |
| Debt incl. finance leases | $1.5B | $1.6B | $2.4B | $1.6B | $1.4B |
| Shareholders' equity | $368M | $505M | $1.2B | $1.8B | $2.6B |
| Net debt / EBITDA | 1.1x | 1.1x | 2.0x | 1.3x | 0.8x |
| Current ratio | 2.4x | 2.2x | 2.2x | 2.1x | 1.7x |
| Interest coverage | 18.3x | 17.9x | 8.3x | 9.2x | 11.5x |
| Returns and quality | |||||
| Return on capital | 55.3% | 49.0% | 30.2% | 22.4% | 21.0% |
| Return on equity | 231.1% | 162.3% | 77.6% | 42.8% | 29.3% |
| Piotroski F-score | 8 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 6 |
| Altman Z'' | 12.2 | 12.4 | 9.4 | 10.2 | 10.0 |
Insiders bought, 12 months
$0.5M
2 insiders
Insiders sold, 12 months
$1.4M
1 insider
Of sales under plans
0%
$0.0M
How to read these numbers
- Revenue:
- Total sales reported in the income statement.
- Operating margin:
- Operating income as a share of revenue.
- Net income:
- Profit after all expenses, interest and tax.
- Free cash flow:
- Cash from operations minus capital spending.
- Net debt / EBITDA:
- Years of EBITDA needed to pay off net debt. Below zero means more cash than debt.
- Return on capital:
- After-tax operating income as a share of the money invested in the business: debt plus equity, minus cash.
Waters · WAT
Charts and comparison
Ten years at a glance, and how it stacks up against similar companies.
Revenue
Net income
Margins, % of revenue
Cash vs debt (incl. leases)
Free cash flow
Dividends and buybacks
Similar companies
Each company’s latest fiscal year. Fiscal years end in different months, so periods don’t line up exactly.
| Company | Market cap | Growth | Op. margin | FCF margin | ROIC | P/E | F-score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Waters WAT | $44.8B | 7.0% | 25.4% | 17.1% | 21.0% | — | 6 |
| Bio-Rad Laboratories BIO | $10.0B | 0.7% | 1.8% | 14.5% | 0.5% | 46.6x | 5 |
| Medpace MEDP | $19.2B | 20.0% | 21.1% | 27.0% | — | 37.6x | 4 |
| Charles River Laboratories CRL | $17.1B | −0.9% | 0.6% | 12.9% | 0.4% | — | 4 |
| Mettler Toledo MTD | $33.7B | 4.0% | — | 21.1% | 50.5% | 37.6x | 7 |
Price compared with profit (P/E)
How many times its yearly profit per share one share costs. Higher means investors pay more for each unit of profit.
KIRA
At $455.98 a share, the company is worth $44.8B.
Waters grew sales faster than 3 of its 4 similar companies.
Source: SEC EDGAR XBRL filings (CIK 0001000697). Data updated October 9, 2026. For information only — not investment advice. Check the original filings before relying on any figure.