Is the business good?
How good a business is WAT?
Waters Corporation earns 1.3% on the capital it employs against a 9.0% cost of capital, so growth costs more than it returns.
1.3%
Return on invested capital · cost of capital 9.0% · 7.7 points below what the capital costs: growth destroys value
- Operating margin
- 7.1%
Operating margin · Diagnostics & Research median 7.1% · 12 months to Q2 2026
- Cash conversion
- 2.38×
Cash conversion · 0.94× a year ago · every dollar of reported profit arrived as cash, and more
- R&D as % of revenue
- 6.9%
R&D as % of revenue
| Year | Operating margin |
|---|---|
| FY2020 | 27% |
| FY2021 | 30% |
| FY2022 | 29% |
| FY2023 | 28% |
| FY2024 | 28% |
| FY2025 | 25% |
Details›
- Operating margin12 months to Q2 2026
- 7.1%
- Net margin12 months to Q2 2026
- 3.6%
- Free cash flow margin
- 8.5%
- R&D as % of revenue
- 6.9%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $4.64B
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- $395M
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- $166M
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- 1.3%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion from the cash flow statement.
Diagnostics & Research
Ranks #29 of 29 by Smart Score