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 businesses based on the strength of their risk, community ranking, earnings, analyst recommendations, dividends, profitability, media sentiment, institutional ownership and valuation.

Do analysts rate WAT or A?

Waters currently has a consensus price target of $392.13, suggesting a potential upside of 14.78%. Agilent Technologies has a consensus price target of $143.00, suggesting a potential upside of 34.32%. Given Agilent Technologies' higher possible upside, analysts clearly 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)	9 Hold rating(s)	7 Buy rating(s)	2 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.61
Agilent Technologies	0 Sell rating(s)	7 Hold rating(s)	6 Buy rating(s)	0 Strong Buy rating(s)	2.46

Does the MarketBeat Community favor WAT or A?

Agilent Technologies received 425 more outperform votes than Waters when rated by MarketBeat users. Likewise, 71.01% of users gave Agilent Technologies an outperform vote while only 53.38% of users gave Waters an outperform vote.

Company	Underperform	Outperform
Waters	Outperform Votes 442 53.38%	Underperform Votes 386 46.62%
Agilent Technologies	Outperform Votes 867 71.01%	Underperform Votes 354 28.99%

Which has more risk and volatility, WAT or A?

Waters has a beta of 1.04, indicating that its stock price is 4% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Agilent Technologies has a beta of 1.19, indicating that its stock price is 19% more volatile than the S&P 500.

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 refer more to WAT or A?

In the previous week, Waters had 19 more articles in the media than Agilent Technologies. MarketBeat recorded 42 mentions for Waters and 23 mentions for Agilent Technologies. Agilent Technologies' average media sentiment score of 1.22 beat Waters' score of 0.42 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	24 Very Positive mention(s)	4 Positive mention(s)	11 Neutral mention(s)	2 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Neutral
Agilent Technologies	18 Very Positive mention(s)	1 Positive mention(s)	3 Neutral mention(s)	0 Negative mention(s)	1 Very Negative mention(s)	Positive

Do insiders & institutionals believe in 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 large money managers, endowments and hedge funds believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Which has higher earnings and 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	6.87	$637.83M	$10.71	31.90
Agilent Technologies	$6.51B	4.66	$1.29B	$4.35	24.47

Summary

Waters beats Agilent Technologies on 12 of the 19 factors compared between the two stocks.