Waters (WAT) Competitors

Waters (NYSE:WAT) and Agilent Technologies (NYSE:A) are both large-cap medical companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, media sentiment, institutional ownership, earnings, risk, analyst recommendations, valuation, dividends and community ranking.

Do analysts rate WAT or A?

Waters presently has a consensus price target of $391.07, suggesting a potential upside of 4.82%. Agilent Technologies has a consensus price target of $146.15, suggesting a potential upside of 19.84%. Given Agilent Technologies' stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Agilent Technologies is more favorable than Waters.

Company	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Waters	0 Sell rating(s)	10 Hold rating(s)	5 Buy rating(s)	1 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.44
Agilent Technologies	0 Sell rating(s)	7 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.50

Does the MarketBeat Community favor WAT or A?

Agilent Technologies received 427 more outperform votes than Waters when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 71.08% of users gave Agilent Technologies an outperform vote while only 53.28% of users gave Waters an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Waters	Outperform Votes 438 53.28%	Underperform Votes 384 46.72%
Agilent Technologies	Outperform Votes 865 71.08%	Underperform Votes 352 28.92%

Is WAT or A more profitable?

Waters has a net margin of 21.56% compared to Agilent Technologies' net margin of 19.27%. Waters' return on equity of 46.31% beat Agilent Technologies' return on equity.

Company	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Waters	21.56%	46.31%	15.67%
Agilent Technologies	19.27%	25.56%	13.47%

Does the media favor WAT or A?

In the previous week, Agilent Technologies had 3 more articles in the media than Waters. MarketBeat recorded 45 mentions for Agilent Technologies and 42 mentions for Waters. Agilent Technologies' average media sentiment score of 0.96 beat Waters' score of 0.50 indicating that Agilent Technologies is being referred to more favorably in the news media.

Company	Very Positive	Positive	Neutral	Negative	Very Negative	Overall Sentiment
Waters	16 Very Positive mention(s)	5 Positive mention(s)	8 Neutral mention(s)	9 Negative mention(s)	4 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive
Agilent Technologies	27 Very Positive mention(s)	4 Positive mention(s)	8 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Which has more volatility & risk, WAT or A?

Waters has a beta of 1, meaning that its share price has a similar volatility profile to the S&P 500.Comparatively, Agilent Technologies has a beta of 1.11, meaning that its share price is 11% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Which has higher earnings & valuation, WAT or A?

Agilent Technologies has higher revenue and earnings than Waters. Agilent Technologies is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Waters, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Company	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Waters	$2.96B	7.49	$637.83M	$10.71	34.83
Agilent Technologies	$6.51B	5.34	$1.29B	$4.35	28.04

Do insiders and institutionals hold more shares of WAT or A?

94.0% of Waters shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.8% of Waters shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, large money managers and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Summary

Agilent Technologies beats Waters on 10 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.