Waters Corporation (NYSE:WAT) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Posted by Stanley Muller on Oct 6th, 2026

Waters Corporation (NYSE:WAT – Get Free Report) has been given an average rating of “Moderate Buy” by the twenty research firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and three have issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $437.10.

WAT has been the topic of several research analyst reports. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on Waters from $465.00 to $515.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 21st. Citigroup boosted their price target on Waters from $425.00 to $470.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 10th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Waters from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $408.00 to $475.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Waters from $370.00 to $400.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Finally, Piper Sandler upgraded shares of Waters from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $400.00 to $480.00 in a research note on Thursday, August 27th.

Read Our Latest Report on Waters

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Christopher Kuebler sold 3,626 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $397.94, for a total value of $1,442,930.44. Following the transaction, the director owned 17,808 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,086,515.52. This represents a 16.92% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.31% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Waters

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Pilgrim Global Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Waters in the second quarter worth about $466,131,171,000. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in Waters in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $3,182,191,000. State Street Corp boosted its position in Waters by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,382,008 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $1,643,428,000 after purchasing an additional 19,998 shares in the last quarter. Jupiter Topco LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Waters during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $623,921,000. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of Waters by 69.2% during the 2nd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,373,150 shares of the medical instruments supplier’s stock worth $514,986,000 after purchasing an additional 561,824 shares during the period. 94.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Waters Trading Up 3.6%

Shares of NYSE WAT opened at $440.45 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32, a current ratio of 1.86 and a quick ratio of 1.29. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 109.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.47 and a beta of 1.15. Waters has a 1-year low of $282.77 and a 1-year high of $448.21. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $412.46 and a 200 day moving average price of $368.10.

Waters (NYSE:WAT – Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The medical instruments supplier reported $3.05 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $3.01 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $1.65 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.62 billion. Waters had a return on equity of 11.27% and a net margin of 3.58%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 113.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $2.95 earnings per share. Waters has set its Q3 2026 guidance at 3.950-4.050 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 14.450-14.650 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Waters will post 14.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Waters

(Get Free Report)

Waters Corporation (NYSE: WAT) develops and manufactures analytical workflow solutions used to measure, characterize and separate chemical and biological materials. Its customers include pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, academic and government laboratories, and organizations in the industrial, food, environmental and other applied markets.

The company’s portfolio includes high-performance liquid chromatography and ultra-performance liquid chromatography systems, mass spectrometry instruments, chromatography columns and other laboratory consumables.