Waters (NYSE:WAT) Price Target Raised to $515.00

Waters (NYSE:WAT) had its price objective increased by The Goldman Sachs Group from $465.00 to $515.00 in a report released on Monday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. The Goldman Sachs Group currently has a buy rating on the medical instruments supplier’s stock.

WAT has been the topic of several other research reports. Morgan Stanley set a $430.00 target price on Waters in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. Barclays raised their price target on Waters from $425.00 to $460.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 5th. HSBC lifted their price objective on shares of Waters from $415.00 to $435.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Waters from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Sunday, September 6th. Finally, Evercore reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $420.00 target price on shares of Waters in a research note on Wednesday, August 5th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $434.60.

Waters Stock Down 1.0%

Shares of NYSE WAT opened at $421.64 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.86, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.32. Waters has a 12-month low of $282.77 and a 12-month high of $433.09. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $402.21 and its 200-day moving average price is $360.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 105.15, a P/E/G ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 1.19.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Waters news, Director Christopher Kuebler sold 3,626 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 6th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $7,086,515.52. This represents a 16.92% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.31% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Waters

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Pilgrim Global Advisors LLC bought a new position 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 valued at about $3,182,191,000. Jupiter Topco LLC purchased a new stake in Waters in the 2nd quarter valued at about $623,921,000. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Waters in the 4th quarter valued at about $265,751,000. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in Waters by 69.2% in 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 acquiring an additional 561,824 shares in the last quarter. 94.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Waters Company Profile

Waters Corporation (NYSE: WAT) develops and manufactures analytical workflow technologies used to measure, characterize and manage chemical and biological substances. Its customers include pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies, industrial organizations, academic institutions and government laboratories.

The company’s portfolio includes liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry and thermal analysis instruments, along with chromatography columns, consumables, laboratory software and services.