Waters Corporation (WAT) Presents at U.S. All Stars Conference Transcript

Waters Corporation ( WAT ) U.S. All Stars Conference September 23, 2026 7:00 AM EDT Company Participants Udit Batra - President, CEO & Director Conference Call Participants Casey Woodring - JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division Presentation Operator Please welcome Udit Batra, President and Chief Executive Officer of Waters Corp interviewed by Casey Woodring at JPMorgan. Casey Woodring JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division Great. Well, thank you, everybody, for joining us today. Thanks to Udit for joining us and making the trip out here for us. Question-and-Answer Session Casey Woodring JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division Maybe, Udit, to start, just level setting here, you had a very strong 2Q, right, 9% organic growth above the 6% to 8% guide for the quarter. Orders again outpaced sales, Becton accelerated. Maybe like what were the most important takeaways from the quarter from your perspective? And where would you say growth outpaced your expectations? Udit Batra President, CEO & Director Yes. I think, firstly, thank you for having us. It's a pleasure to be here. I mean the quarter came in ahead of expectations, as you said. On the base business, across the board, we saw acceleration, right? We saw instruments growing high single digits, service growing high single digits, chemistry yet again double digits. And if you accounted for the pull forward that occurred due to Liberation Day same time last year, it grew 16%. Geographically, we saw U.S. mid- to high single digits. Europe was mid-single digits. But China and India were in excess of -- India was in excess of 20%, and China was again double-digit growth. And again, if you account for the pull forward, China was mid-teens. When you look at end markets, pharma was again double digits with the replacement cycle contributing in the U.S. and Europe with large pharma, India benefiting from generics. And the good news was the best coming