Waters Corporation (WAT)
Healthcare · NYQ · US
Fundamentals
Valuation and ratings
Waters Corporation trades at USD378.19, which is 19% above the USD305.69 our discounted cash flow model puts on the business. On that measure it screens as expensive, which is not the same as saying it will fall.
Our moat model scores it 61 out of 100, which is a moat, but not a deep one. A moat is a structural reason competitors cannot take the profits away, and it matters more to a long holding period than any single quarter's numbers do.
It changes hands at 47.4 times earnings. Be careful reading that in isolation: for a cyclical business a low P/E arrives at the top of the cycle, when profits are peaking and about to fall, which is exactly when the shares look cheapest and are not.
About Waters Corporation
Waters Corporation provides analytical workflow solutions in Asia, the Americas, and Europe. The company operates through two segments, Waters and TA. The company designs, manufactures, sells, and services liquid chromatography, as well as mass spectrometry (MS) technology systems and supports products, including chromatography columns, and other consumable products. It also designs, manufactures, sells, and services thermal analysis, rheometry, and calorimetry instruments for use in predicting the suitability and stability of fine chemicals, pharmaceuticals, water, polymers, metals, and viscous liquids for various industrial, consumer goods, and healthcare products, as well as for life science research; and develops and supplies software-based products that interface with its instruments, as well as other manufacturers' instruments. In addition, the company offers MS technology, which is used in drug discovery and development comprising clinical trial testing, the analysis of proteins in disease processes, nutritional safety analysis, and environmental testing. Its products are used by clinical, pharmaceutical, biochemical, industrial, nutritional safety, environmental, academic, and governmental customers working in research and development, quality assurance, and other laboratory applications. The company was founded in 1958 and is headquartered in Milford, Massachusetts.
WAT passes 2 of our 30 screens today
Each screen prints the exact criteria it used, and the circumstances in which it is wrong.
Smart money ownership
22 of the funds we track reported a position in their latest SEC 13F filing. Largest first:
- Terry Smith, Fundsmith LLP$956.56M · 7.5% of book
- First Eagle, First Eagle Investment Management, LLC$469.09M · 0.8% of book
- Andreas Halvorsen, VIKING GLOBAL INVESTORS LP$374.17M · 1.1% of book
- Veritas Asset Management, Veritas Asset Management LLP$357.60M · 6.1% of book
- D. E. Shaw, D. E. Shaw & Co., Inc.$305.32M · 0.2% of book
A word of warning on reading these figures: a 13F reports the market value of a holding, so a fund that traded nothing at all still appears to have sold when the price fell. We found 102 companies where the standard reading gives the opposite answer. Only the share count is honest.
Common questions
Is Waters Corporation (WAT) undervalued?
Against our discounted cash flow estimate of USD305.69, WAT at USD378.19 is 19% above fair value. That is one model's answer, not a recommendation, and most of a DCF's output sits in a terminal value nobody can forecast.
Which funds own WAT?
22 of the institutions we track reported a position in WAT in their most recent SEC 13F filing. A 13F is filed up to 45 days after quarter end, so it tells you what a fund held then, not what it holds now.
What is WAT's P/E ratio?
WAT trades at 47.4 times earnings. A low P/E is not automatically cheap: on a cyclical company it is usually a warning that earnings are at a peak.
The full research page for WAT, with financial statements, ownership detail, peer comparison and alerts, is free inside the app.
Data from company filings, exchange quotes and SEC EDGAR 13F disclosures. Quotes are delayed. Metrics we do not have are left out rather than estimated. Educational information, not financial advice.