Waters Corporation — Earnings Quality Grade F
WAT · Healthcare
Major red flags
Screening Summary
Financial Trends
Revenue & Net Income ($B)
Margins (%)
18-Point Screening
Revenue Quality
DSO 96 days, change +5 days YoY
AR outpaced revenue for 2 consecutive years
Revenue 7.0%, CFFO -14.4%. Cash follows revenue
Expense Quality
Inventory 19.9% vs COGS 7.4%. Normal
CapEx growth -20.9% vs revenue 7.0%. Normal
SG&A/Gross Profit = 44.3%. Normal
Gross margin 59.3%, change -0.1pp. Stable
Cash Flow Quality
CFFO/NI = 1.02. Profits backed by cash
FCF $0.5B, FCF/NI = 0.84
Accruals ratio = -0.2%. Low accruals
Cash $0.6B covers only 39% of debt $1.5B
Balance Sheet Health
Goodwill+Intangibles $1.9B = 74% of equity. Over 50%
Debt/EBITDA = 1.4x. Healthy
Other assets 4.1% vs revenue 7.0%. Normal
No write-off data
Acquisition Risk
FCF after acquisitions positive
Goodwill+Intangibles change 2% YoY. Normal
Manipulation Score
M-Score = -2.37 (< -2.22). Unlikely manipulator
Beneish M-Score
Altman Z-Score
Generated from public financial data using forensic accounting frameworks. Not investment advice. Data: Yahoo Finance · 2026-04-09