Waters (NYSE:WAT) shareholders have earned a 9.4% CAGR over the last five years

If you buy and hold a stock for many years, you'd hope to be making a profit. But more than that, you probably want to see it rise more than the market average. Unfortunately for shareholders, while the Waters Corporation (NYSE:WAT) share price is up 56% in the last five years, that's less than the market return. Meanwhile, the last twelve months saw the share price rise 2.4%. Let's take a look at the underlying fundamentals over the longer term, and see if they've been consistent with shareholders returns. Trump has pledged to "unleash" American oil and gas and these 15 US stocks have developments that are poised to benefit. To quote Buffett, 'Ships will sail around the world but the Flat Earth Society will flourish. There will continue to be wide discrepancies between price and value in the marketplace...' One imperfect but simple way to consider how the market perception of a company has shifted is to compare the change in the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price movement. Over half a decade, Waters managed to grow its earnings per share at 6.2% a year. This EPS growth is slower than the share price growth of 9% per year, over the same period. So it's fair to assume the market has a higher opinion of the business than it did five years ago. And that's hardly shocking given the track record of growth. You can see below how EPS has changed over time (discover the exact values by clicking on the image). NYSE:WAT Earnings Per Share Growth December 12th 2025 Before buying or selling a stock, we always recommend a close examination of historic growth trends, available here. A Different Perspective Waters shareholders are up 2.4% for the year. But that was short of the market average. It's probably a good sign that the company has an even better long term track record, having provided shareholders with an annual TSR of 9% over five years. It's quite possible the business continues to execute with prowess, even as the share price gains are slowing. It's always interesting to track share price performance over the longer term. But to understand Waters better, we need to consider many other factors. Take risks, for example - Waters has 1 warning sign we think you should be aware of. If you are like me, then you will not want to miss this free list of undervalued small caps that insiders are buying. Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on American exchanges.Mobile Infrastructure for Defense and DisasterThe next wave in robotics isn't humanoid. Its fully autonomous towers delivering 5G, ISR, and radar in under 30 minutes, anywhere.Get the investor briefing before the next round of contractsSponsored On Behalf of CiTech