Illuminavs.Waters Corporation
ILMN vs WAT · both in Life science tools, part of the Medicine, pharma & life science value chain: Instruments, reagents and equipment for research, development and production.
Waters Corporation is about 1.3× larger than Illumina by market cap; Illumina trades at the lower P/E (33.7 vs 83.5); year to date, Illumina leads (+45.0% vs −0.9%).
Side by side
| ILMN | WAT | |
|---|---|---|
| Market cap | $28.8B | $37.5B |
| Price | $190.20 | $376.43 |
| Today | −1.8% | −0.2% |
| Return YTD | +45.0% | −0.9% |
| Return 1Y | +90.1% | +6.6% |
| P/E | 33.7 | 83.5 |
| P/S | 6.6 | 9.9 |
| P/B | 10.8 | 2.5 |
Data as of 2026-07-11 · updates daily after U.S. close
The two companies
IlluminaILMN
American leader in DNA sequencing — instruments and consumables used in research and clinical genomics.
Full ILMN profile →Waters CorporationWAT
Analytical instruments (chromatography and mass spectrometry) for pharma and labs.
Full WAT profile →More comparisons in Life science tools
See where ILMN and WAT sit in the full Medicine, pharma & life science map — every segment from suppliers to end markets.Open the Life science value chain →