WAT Should Benefit From New Product Introductions: Citigroup

Analysts at Citigroup initiate coverage of Waters Corp WAT with a "hold" rating. The target price for WAT is set to $78. Citigroup mentions, “Over the next 12 months, we believe WAT should benefit from new product introductions (UPLC and Mass Spec.), Industrial end market recovery, and strong free cash flow generation leading to share buybacks/future M&A. Nonetheless, we remain on the sidelines until we get comfortable that the LC replacement market is developing, Agilent’s 1290 UPLC is market expanding rather than share shifting, and WAT’s overexposure to the weak pharma/biotech end markets is manageable with stronger performance from Industrials and Government/Academic customers.” “While we are below the Street in 2011 and 2012, we believe there could be upside to our numbers as the LC instrument replacement cycles materializes….We believe WAT EPS growth will continue to outpace S&P earnings growth through 2013,” the analysts add. More Analyst Ratings here