UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

Form 10-K

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2017

or

Commission File Number: 01-14010

Waters Corporation

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

34 Maple Street

Milford, Massachusetts 01757

(Address, including zip code, of principal executive offices)

(508) 478-2000

(Registrant’s telephone number, including area code)

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.    Yes  ☑        No  ☐

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act.    Yes  ☐        No  ☑

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.    Yes  ☑        No  ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate website, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files).    Yes  ☑        No  ☐

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K (§229.405 of this chapter) is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K.    ☑

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer”, “accelerated filer”, “smaller reporting company”, and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check one):

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act.   ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act).    Yes  ☐        No  ☑

State the aggregate market value of the registrant’s common stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant as of July 1, 2017: $14,672,588,076.

Indicate the number of shares outstanding of the registrant’s common stock as of February 16, 2018: 78,784,462

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of the registrant’s definitive proxy statement that will be filed for the 2018 Annual Meeting of Stockholders are incorporated by reference in Part III.

WATERS CORPORATION AND SUBSIDIARIES

ANNUAL REPORT ON FORM 10-K

INDEX

PART I

General

Waters Corporation (the “Company”) is a specialty measurement company that has pioneered analytical workflow solutions involving liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry and thermal analysis innovations serving the life, materials and food sciences for nearly 60 years. The Company primarily designs, manufactures, sells and services high performance liquid chromatography (“HPLC”), ultra performance liquid chromatography (“UPLC^®” and together with HPLC, referred to as “LC”) and mass spectrometry (“MS”) technology systems and support products, including chromatography columns, other consumable products and comprehensive post-warranty service plans. These systems are complementary products that are frequently employed together (“LC-MS”) and sold as integrated instrument systems using common software platforms. In addition, the Company designs, manufactures, sells and services thermal analysis, rheometry and calorimetry instruments through its TA^® product line. The Company is also a developer and supplier of advanced software-based products that interface with the Company’s instruments, as well as other manufacturers’ instruments.

The Company’s products are used by life science, pharmaceutical, biochemical, industrial, nutritional safety, environmental, academic and governmental customers working in research and development, quality assurance and other laboratory applications. LC is a standard technique and is utilized in a broad range of industries to detect, identify, monitor and measure the chemical, physical and biological composition of materials, and to purify a full range of compounds. MS technology, principally in conjunction with chromatography, is employed in drug discovery and development, including clinical trial testing, the analysis of proteins in disease processes (known as “proteomics”), nutritional safety analysis and environmental testing. LC-MS instruments combine a liquid phase sample introduction and separation system with mass spectrometric compound identification and quantification. The Company’s thermal analysis, rheometry and calorimetry instruments are used in predicting the suitability and stability of fine chemicals, pharmaceuticals, water, polymers, metals and viscous liquids for various industrial, consumer goods and healthcare products, as well as for life science research.

Waters Corporation, organized as a Delaware corporation in 1991, is a holding company that owns all of the outstanding common stock of Waters Technologies Corporation, its operating subsidiary. Waters Corporation became a publicly-traded company with its initial public offering (“IPO”) in November 1995. Since the IPO, the Company has added two significant and complementary technologies to its range of products with the acquisitions of TA Instruments in May 1996 and Micromass Limited in September 1997.

Business Segments

The Company’s business activities, for which discrete financial information is available, are regularly reviewed and evaluated by the chief operating decision maker. As a result of this evaluation, the Company determined that it has two operating segments: Waters^® and TA^®. The Waters operating segment is primarily in the business of designing, manufacturing, distributing and servicing LC and MS instrument systems, columns and other precision chemistry consumables that can be integrated and used along with other analytical instruments. The TA operating segment is primarily in the business of designing, manufacturing, distributing and servicing thermal analysis, rheometry and calorimetry instruments. The Company’s two operating segments have similar economic characteristics; product processes; products and services; types and classes of customers; methods of distribution; and regulatory environments. Because of these similarities, the two segments have been aggregated into one reporting segment for financial statement purposes.

Information concerning revenues and long-lived assets attributable to each of the Company’s products, services and geographic areas is set forth in Note 16 in the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements, which is incorporated herein by reference.

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Waters Products and Markets

High Performance and Ultra Performance Liquid Chromatography

HPLC is a standard technique used to identify and analyze the constituent components of a variety of chemicals and other materials. The Company believes that HPLC’s performance capabilities enable it to separate, identify and quantify a high proportion of all known chemicals. As a result, HPLC is used to analyze substances in a wide variety of industries for research and development purposes, quality control and process engineering applications.

The most significant end-use markets for HPLC are those served by the pharmaceutical and life science industries. In these markets, HPLC is used extensively to understand diseases, identify new drugs, develop manufacturing methods and assure the potency and purity of new pharmaceuticals. HPLC is also used in a variety of other applications, such as analyses of foods and beverages for nutritional labeling and compliance with safety regulations and the testing of water and air purity within the environmental testing industry, as well as applications in other industries, such as chemical and consumer products. HPLC is also used by universities, research institutions and governmental agencies, such as the United States Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) and their foreign counterparts that mandate safety and efficacy testing.

In 2004, Waters introduced a novel technology that the Company describes as ultra performance liquid chromatography that utilizes a packing material with small, uniform diameter particles and a specialized instrument, the ACQUITY UPLC^®, to accommodate the increased pressure and narrower chromatographic bands that are generated by these small and tightly packed particles. By using the ACQUITY UPLC, researchers and analysts are able to achieve more comprehensive chemical separations and faster analysis times in comparison with many analyses previously performed by HPLC. In addition, in using the ACQUITY UPLC, researchers have the potential to extend the range of applications beyond that of HPLC, enabling them to uncover more levels of scientific information. While offering significant performance advantages, the ACQUITY UPLC is also compatible with the Company’s software products and the general operating protocols of HPLC. For these reasons, the Company’s customers and field sales and support organizations are well positioned to utilize this new technology and instrument. In 2015, the Company introduced the ACQUITY^® Arc System and its enabling Arc Multi-flow path^TM technology, which bridges the gap between HPLC and UPLC by emulating a variety of HPLC systems without altering the method’s gradient table and enabling improved chromatographic performance of methods by leveraging 2.5-2.7 micron particle column technologies.

Waters manufactures LC instruments that are offered in configurations that allow for varying degrees of automation, from component configured systems for academic teaching and research applications to fully automated systems for regulated and high sample throughput testing, and that have a variety of detection technologies, from optical-based ultra-violet (“UV”) absorbance, refractive index and fluorescence detectors to a suite of MS-based detectors, optimized for certain analyses.

The primary consumable products for LC are chromatography columns. These columns are packed with separation media used in the LC testing process and are typically replaced at regular intervals. The chromatography column contains one of several types of packing material, typically stationary phase particles made from silica or polymeric resins. As a pressurized sample is introduced to the column inlet and permeates through the packed column, it is separated into its constituent components.

Waters HPLC columns can be used on Waters-branded and competitors’ LC systems. The Company believes that it is one of a few suppliers in the world that processes silica and polymeric resins, packs columns and distributes its own products. In doing so, the Company believes it can better ensure product consistency, a key attribute for its customers in quality control laboratories, and can react quickly to new customer requirements. The Company believes that its ACQUITY UPLC lines of columns are used primarily on its ACQUITY UPLC instrument systems and, furthermore, that its ACQUITY UPLC instruments primarily use ACQUITY UPLC columns. In 2015, the Company introduced the Oasis^® PRiME HLB cartridges, which process

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samples up to 40% faster and deliver samples that are up to 70% cleaner with fewer LC-MS matrix effects than samples prepared using other extraction techniques. In addition, the ACQUITY UPLC^® Glycoprotein BEH Amide columns were introduced in 2015 to help biopharmaceutical companies to better understand where glycan groups (bonded sugars) are located within the therapeutic proteins they are developing and manufacturing. In 2016, the Company continued to expand its column chemistry capabilities through the introduction of CORTECS^® C₈, CORTECS^® Phenyl, CORTECS^® T3 and CORTECS^® Shield RP18.

The Company’s precision chemistry consumable products also include environmental and nutritional safety testing products, including Certified Reference Materials (“CRM”s) and Proficiency Testing (“PT”) products. Laboratories around the world and across multiple industries use these products for quality control and proficiency testing and also purchase product support services required to help with their federal and state mandated accreditation requirements or with quality control over critical pharmaceutical analysis.

Mass Spectrometry and Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry

MS is a powerful analytical technology that is used to identify unknown compounds, to quantify known materials and to elucidate the structural and chemical properties of molecules by measuring the masses of molecules that have been converted into ions.

The Company is a technology and market leader in the development, manufacture, sale and distribution of MS instruments and components. These instruments are typically integrated and used along with other complementary analytical instruments and systems, such as LC, chemical electrophoresis and gas chromatography. A wide variety of instrumental designs fall within the overall category of MS instrumentation, including devices that incorporate quadrupole, ion trap, time-of-flight (“Tof”), magnetic sector and ion mobility technologies. Furthermore, these technologies are often used in tandem (MS-MS) to maximize the speed and/or efficacy of certain experiments.

Currently, the Company offers a wide range of MS instrument systems utilizing various combinations of quadrupole, Tof and ion mobility designs. These instrument systems are used in drug discovery and development, as well as for environmental, clinical and nutritional safety testing. The overwhelming majority of mass spectrometers sold by the Company are designed to utilize an LC system and a liquid compatible interface (such as an electrospray ionization source) as the sample introduction device. These products supply a diverse market with a strong emphasis on the life science, pharmaceutical, biomedical, clinical, food and beverage and environmental market segments worldwide.

MS is an increasingly important detection technology for LC. The Company’s smaller-sized mass spectrometers, such as the single quadrupole detector (“SQD”) and the tandem quadrupole detector (“TQD”), are often referred to as LC “detectors” and are typically sold as part of an LC system or as an LC system upgrade. Larger quadrupole systems, such as the Xevo^® TQ and Xevo^® TQ-S instruments, are used primarily for experiments performed for late-stage drug development, including clinical trial testing. Quadrupole time-of-flight (“Q-Tof^TM”) instruments, such as the Company’s SYNAPT^® G2-S, are often used to analyze the role of proteins in disease processes, an application sometimes referred to as “proteomics”. In 2015, the Company introduced the GlycoWorks^® RapiFluor-MS^® N-Glycan Kit, which enables fast de-glycosylation and labeling, reduces sample preparation time and allows mass detection for characterization and development with enhanced sensitivity. In 2016, the Company introduced the Xevo^® TQ-XS mass spectrometry system enabled by the newly designed StepWave^TM SX ion guide, which features a unique combination of ion optics, detection and ionization technologies resulting in levels of sensitivity not previously seen. The Company also introduced SONAR in 2016, which is a new data acquisition technology for use with the Xevo G2-XS that allows for the quantification and identification of lipids, metabolites and proteins in complex samples in a more efficient manner.

In November 2015, the Company acquired all of the outstanding stock of MPE Orbur Group Limited and its sole operating subsidiary, Midland Precision Equipment Company, Ltd. (“MPE”), a manufacturer of MS

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instrumentation components, for $12 million, net of cash acquired. MPE is a highly skilled manufacturer and former Waters supplier that produces critical components that support the Company’s MS instrument systems.

LC and MS are typically embodied within an analytical system tailored for either a dedicated class of analyses or as a general purpose analytical device. An increasing percentage of the Company’s customers are purchasing LC and MS components simultaneously and it has become common for LC and MS instrumentation to be used within the same laboratory and operated by the same user. The descriptions of LC and MS above reflect the historical segmentation of these analytical technologies and the historical categorization of their respective practitioners. Increasingly in today’s instrument market, this segmentation and categorization is becoming obsolete as a high percentage of instruments used in the laboratory embody both LC and MS technologies as part of a single device. In response to this development and to further promote the high utilization of these hybrid instruments, the Company has organized its Waters operating segment to develop, manufacture, sell and service integrated LC-MS systems.

Based upon reports from independent marketing research firms and publicly-disclosed sales figures from competitors, the Company believes that it is one of the world’s largest manufacturers and distributors of LC and LC-MS instrument systems, chromatography columns and other consumables and related services.

The Company has been a developer and supplier of software-based products that interface with the Company’s instruments, as well as other suppliers’ instruments. The Company’s newest software technology, UNIFI^®, is a scientific information system that is the culmination of a multi-year effort to substantially bring all of Waters’ preexisting, distinct software systems under one operating system. UNIFI joins Waters’ suite of informatics products — Empower^® Chromatography Data Software, MassLynx^® Mass Spectrometry Software and NuGenesis^® Scientific Data Management System, each of which is used to support innovations within world-leading institutions. UNIFI is the industry’s first comprehensive software that seamlessly integrates UPLC chromatography, mass spectrometry and informatics data workflows. In 2015, the Company’s introduction of the Vion IMS Q-Tof Mass Spectrometer marks the first Waters mass spectrometer to be fully supported on UNIFI. In 2016, the Company announced two reference libraries available within UNIFI, the Metabolic Profiling CCS Library and the RapiFluor-MS^® Glycan GU Scientific Library. The Company also introduced Symphony Data Pipeline software in 2016, which is a client-server application that automates the movement and transformation of large amounts of LC-MS data to speed up analytical workflows and liberate scientists from mundane yet necessary tasks associated with managing data files.

Waters Service

Services provided by Waters enable customers to maximize technology productivity, support customer compliance activities and provide transparency into enterprise resource management efficiencies. The customer benefits from improved budget control, data-driven technology adoption and accelerated workflow at a site or on a global perspective. The Company considers its service offerings to be highly differentiated from our competition, as evidenced by a consistent increase in annual service revenues. The Company’s principal competitors in the service market include PerkinElmer, Inc., Agilent Technologies, Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. and General Electric Company. These competitors can provide certain services on Waters instruments to varying degrees and always present competitive risk.

The servicing and support of instruments, software and accessories is an important source of revenue and represents over 30% of sales for Waters. These revenues are derived primarily through the sale of support plans, demand services, spare parts, customer performance validation services and customer training. Support plans typically involve scheduled instrument maintenance and an agreement to promptly repair a non-functioning instrument in return for a fee described in a contract that is priced according to the configuration of the instrument.

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TA Products and Markets

Thermal Analysis, Rheometry and Calorimetry

Thermal analysis measures the physical or thermodynamic characteristics of materials as a function of temperature. Changes in temperature affect several characteristics of materials, such as their heat flow characteristics, physical state, weight, dimension and mechanical and electrical properties, which may be measured by one or more thermal analysis techniques, including calorimetry. Consequently, thermal analysis techniques are widely used in the development, production and characterization of materials in various industries, such as plastics, chemicals, automobiles, pharmaceuticals and electronics.

Rheometry instruments often complement thermal analyzers in characterizing materials. Rheometry characterizes the flow properties of materials and measures their viscosity, elasticity and deformation under different types of “loading” or other conditions. The information obtained under such conditions provides insight into a material’s behavior during processing, packaging, transport, usage and storage.

Thermal analysis, rheometry and calorimetry instruments are heavily used in material testing laboratories and, in many cases, provide information useful in predicting the suitability and stability of industrial polymers, fine chemicals, pharmaceuticals, water, metals and viscous liquids in various industrial, consumer goods and healthcare products, as well as for life science research. As with systems offered by Waters, a range of instrument configurations is available with increasing levels of sample handling and information processing automation. In addition, systems and accompanying software packages can be tailored for specific applications. In 2015, TA introduced the TAM IV and TAM IV-48, which extend the operating temperature range (4°C to 150°C) with long-term temperature stability for measuring processes. In 2015, TA also introduced the Affinity ITC and ITC Auto, which are designed for the most challenging life science laboratory environments that require high sensitivity, high productivity and the most advanced isothermal titration calorimetry. In 2016, TA introduced a new line of differential scanning calorimeters and thermogravimetric analyzers. These new Discovery DSC systems feature enhanced sensing technologies resulting in unprecedented performance in baseline flatness, sensitivity, resolution and reproducibility. In addition, TA introduced the ACS-2 Air Chiller System, ElectroForce 3310 test instrument and DuraPulse^TM Stent Graft test instrument in 2016. In 2017, TA introduced the TAM Air microcalorimeter. Although designed to characterize the curing of cement, this instrument is an ideal platform for imaginative experimental design in a wide range of applications, including cement and concrete, material science, food, pharmaceuticals and environmental analysis. TA also introduced three new dilatometer product lines in its 800 platform, which are high precision systems designed to measure dimensional changes of a specimen brought about by dynamic thermal events in a wide range of applications, including material science, ceramics and metals. In 2017, TA introduced the Discovery SDT 650, which is a simultaneous differential scanning calorimeter/thermogravimetric analyzer and, we believe, the only system capable of simultaneous DSC/TGA measurement. In addition, TA introduced the Discovery HP-TGA750, a benchtop high pressure TGA that utilizes a patented ultra-high resolution magnetic suspension balance and new high precision temperature control system. Late in 2017, TA introduced the Discovery DMA 850, which measures the viscoelastic mechanical properties of material under controlled conditions of temperature, environment and mechanical stimulus (stress or strain). The DMA 850 features frictionless air bearing supports and a linear optical encoder, which ensures stable, accurate, high-resolution displacement measurement across the full travel range and enables displacement control of 5 nm.

In May 2015, the Company acquired the net assets of the ElectroForce^® business of the Bose Corporation (“ElectroForce”), a manufacturer of testing systems, for $9 million in cash. ElectroForce’s core business is the manufacturing of dynamic mechanical testing systems used to characterize medical devices, biologic and engineered materials. The ElectroForce test instruments are based on unique motor designs that are quiet, energy-efficient and scalable, while delivering precise performance over a wide range of force and frequency. In 2017, TA introduced the WinTest^® 8.0 software package, which will be standard on all new ElectroForce products. In addition, TA introduced the ElectroForce DMA 3200 in 2017, which combines fatigue and dynamic mechanical analysis into a single mechanical test platform.

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In September 2016, the Company acquired all of the outstanding stock of Rubotherm GmbH (“Rubotherm”), a manufacturer of gravimetric analysis systems, for approximately $6 million in cash, $5 million of which was paid at closing and an additional $1 million paid after closing to settle certain liabilities. Rubotherm develops and manufactures analytical test instruments for thermogravimetric and sorption measurements that are used in both industrial and academic research laboratories in disciplines that include chemistry, material science and engineering. The Rubotherm acquisition will help support and further expand product offerings within TA’s thermal analysis business.

TA Service

Similar to Waters, the servicing and support of TA’s instruments is an important source of revenue and represents more than 25% of sales for TA. TA operates independently from the Waters operating segment, though many of its overseas offices are situated in Waters’ facilities to achieve operational efficiencies. TA has dedicated field sales and service operations. Service sales are primarily derived from the sale of support plans, replacement parts and billed labor fees associated with the repair, maintenance and upgrade of installed systems.

Global Customers

The Company typically has a broad and diversified customer base that includes pharmaceutical accounts, other industrial accounts, universities and governmental agencies. Purchase of the Company’s instrument systems is often dependent on its customers’ capital spending, or funding as in the cases of governmental, academic and research institutions, which often fluctuate from year to year. The pharmaceutical segment represents the Company’s largest sector and includes multinational pharmaceutical companies, generic drug manufacturers, contract research organizations (“CRO”s) and biotechnology companies. The Company’s other industrial customers include chemical manufacturers, polymer manufacturers, food and beverage companies and environmental testing laboratories. The Company also sells to universities and governmental agencies worldwide. The Company’s technical sales and support staff members work closely with its customers in developing and implementing applications that meet their full range of analytical requirements. During 2017, 56% of the Company’s sales were to pharmaceutical accounts, 31% to other industrial accounts and 13% to governmental agencies and academic institutions.

The Company typically experiences an increase in sales in the fourth quarter, as a result of purchasing habits for capital goods of many customers who tend to exhaust their spending budgets by calendar year end. The Company does not rely on any single customer for a material portion of its sales. During fiscal years 2017, 2016 and 2015, no single customer accounted for more than 2% of the Company’s net sales.

Sales and Service

The Company has one of the largest direct sales and service organizations focused exclusively on the analytical workflows offered by the Company. Across these product technologies, using respective specialized sales and service workforces, the Company serves its customer base with 88 sales offices throughout the world as of December 31, 2017 and approximately 3,800, 3,600 and 3,400 field representatives in 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively. This investment in sales and service personnel serves to maintain and expand the Company’s installed base of instruments. The Company’s sales representatives have direct responsibility for account relationships, while service representatives work in the field to install instruments, train customers and minimize instrument downtime. In-house and field-based technical support representatives work directly with customers, providing them assistance with applications and procedures on Company products. The Company provides customers with comprehensive information through various corporate and regional internet websites and product literature, and also makes consumable products available through electronic ordering facilities and a dedicated catalog.

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Manufacturing and Distribution

The Company provides high product quality by overseeing each stage of the production of its instruments, columns and chemical reagents.

The Company currently assembles a portion of its LC instruments at its facility in Milford, Massachusetts, where it performs machining, assembly and testing. The Milford facility maintains quality management and environmental management systems in accordance with the requirements of ISO 9001:2008, ISO 13485:2003 and ISO 14001:2004, and adheres to applicable regulatory requirements (including the FDA Quality System Regulation and the European In-Vitro Diagnostic Directive). The Company outsources manufacturing of certain electronic components, such as computers, monitors and circuit boards, to outside vendors that meet the Company’s quality requirements. In addition, the Company outsources the manufacturing of certain LC instrument systems and components to well-established contract manufacturing firms in Singapore. The Company’s Singapore entity is ISO 9001:2008 certified and manages all Asian outsourced manufacturing as well as the distribution of all products from Asia. The Company may pursue outsourcing opportunities as they arise but believes it maintains adequate supply chain and manufacturing capabilities in the event of disruption or natural disasters.

The Company manufactures specialty Supercritical Fluid Chromatography (“SFC”) and Supercritical Fluid Extraction (“SFE”) products in its facility in Sharpsburg, Pennsylvania. The Sharpsburg facility is aligned with the policies and procedures for product manufacturing and distribution as adhered to in the Milford, Massachusetts facility and is under the same structural leadership organization.

The Company primarily manufactures and distributes its LC columns at its facilities in Taunton, Massachusetts and Wexford, Ireland. The Taunton facility processes, sizes and treats silica and polymeric media that are packed into columns, solid phase extraction cartridges and bulk shipping containers in both Taunton and Wexford. The Wexford facility also manufactures and distributes certain data, instruments and software components for the Company’s LC, MS and TA product lines. The Company’s Taunton facility is certified to ISO 9001:2008. The Wexford facility is certified to ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 13485:2003/EN ISO 13485:2012. VICAM^® manufactures antibody-linked resins and magnetic beads that are packed into columns and kits in Milford, Massachusetts and Nixa, Missouri. The Company manufactures and distributes its Analytical Standards and Reagents and Environmental Resource Associates (“ERA”) product lines at its facility in Golden, Colorado, which is certified to ISO 9001:2015 and accredited to ISO/IEC 17025, ISO/IEC 17034 and ISO Guide 34. Some ERA products are also manufactured in the Wexford, Ireland facility, which is also accredited to ISO/IEC 17025:2005, ISO/IEC 17034:2016.

The Company manufactures and distributes its MS products at its facilities in Wilmslow, England and Wexford, Ireland. Certain components or modules of the Company’s MS instruments are manufactured at its facility in Solihull, England and by long-standing outside contractors. Each stage of this supply chain is closely monitored by the Company to maintain high quality and performance standards. The instruments, components or modules are then returned to the Company’s facilities, where its engineers perform final assembly, calibrations to customer specifications and quality control procedures. The Company’s MS facilities are certified to ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 13485:2003/EN ISO 13485:2012 and adhere to applicable regulatory requirements (including the FDA Quality System Regulation and the European In-Vitro Diagnostic Directive).

TA’s thermal analysis, rheometry and calorimetry products are manufactured and distributed at the Company’s New Castle, Delaware, Wakefield, Massachusetts, Eden Prairie, Minnesota, Lindon, Utah, Bochum, Germany, Huellhorst, Germany, Wetzlar, Germany and Ede, Netherlands facilities. Similar to MS, elements of TA’s products are manufactured by outside contractors and are then returned to the Company’s facilities for final assembly, calibration and quality control. The Company’s New Castle facility is certified to ISO 9001:2008 standards and the Eden Prairie facility is certified to both ISO 9001:2008 and ISO/IEC 17025:2005 standards.

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Raw Materials

The Company purchases a variety of raw materials, primarily consisting of high temperature alloy sheet metal and castings, forgings, pre-plated metals and electrical components from various vendors. The materials used by the Company’s operations are generally available from a number of sources and in sufficient quantities to meet current requirements subject to normal lead times.

The Company is subject to rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, requiring disclosure as to whether certain materials (tantalum, tin, gold and tungsten), known as conflict minerals, which may be contained in the Company’s products, are mined from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and adjoining countries. In 2016, the Company was not able to determine with certainty the country of origin of some of the conflict minerals in its manufactured products. However, the Company does not have knowledge that any of its conflict minerals originated from the Democratic Republic of the Congo or adjoining countries. The Company is in the process of evaluating its 2017 supply chain, and the Company plans to file its 2017 Form SD with the SEC in May 2018. The results of this and future evaluations may impose additional costs and may introduce new risks related to the Company’s ability to verify the origin of any conflict minerals contained in its products.

In addition, the Company continues to monitor environmental health and safety regulations in countries in which it operates throughout the world, in particular, European Union and China Restrictions on the use of certain Hazardous Substances in electrical and electronic equipment (RoHS) and European Union Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment directives. Further information regarding these regulations is available on the Company’s website, www.waters.com, under the caption “About Waters / Environmental Health & Safety”.

Research and Development

The Company maintains an active research and development program focused on the development and commercialization of products that extend, complement and update its existing product offering. The Company’s research and development expenditures for 2017, 2016 and 2015 were $133 million, $125 million and $119 million, respectively. In addition, in 2017 and 2015, the Company incurred charges of $5 million and $4 million, respectively, for acquired in-process research and development related to milestone payments associated with a licensing arrangement for certain intellectual property relating to mass spectrometry technologies yet to be commercialized and for which there was no future alternative use as of the acquisition date. These licensing arrangements are significantly related to new, biologically-focused applications, as well as other applications, and require the Company to make additional future payments of up to $7 million if certain milestones are achieved, as well as royalties on future net sales.

Nearly all of the Company’s LC products have been developed at the Company’s main research and development center located in Milford, Massachusetts, with input and feedback from the Company’s extensive field organizations and customers. The majority of the Company’s MS products are developed at facilities in England and most of the Company’s current materials characterization products are developed at the Company’s research and development center in New Castle, Delaware. At December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015, there were 1,004, 971 and 955 employees, respectively, involved in the Company’s research and development efforts. The Company has increased research and development expenses from its continued commitment to invest significantly in new product development and existing product enhancements, and as a result of acquisitions. Despite the Company’s active research and development programs, there can be no assurance that the Company’s product development and commercialization efforts will be successful or that the products developed by the Company will be accepted by the marketplace.

Employees

The Company employed approximately 7,000, 6,900 and 6,600 employees at December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively, with approximately 41% of the Company’s employees located in the United States. The

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Company believes its employee relations are generally good. The Company’s employees are not unionized or affiliated with any internal or external labor organizations. The Company firmly believes that its future success largely depends upon its continued ability to attract and retain highly skilled employees.

Competition

The analytical instrument systems, supplies and services market is highly competitive. The Company encounters competition from several worldwide suppliers and other companies in both domestic and foreign markets for each of its three primary technologies. The Company competes in its markets primarily on the basis of product performance, reliability, service and, to a lesser extent, price. Competitors continuously introduce new products and have instrument businesses that are generally more diversified than the Company’s business. Some competitors have greater financial resources and broader distribution than the Company’s.

In the markets served by Waters, the Company’s principal competitors include: Agilent Technologies, Inc., Shimadzu Corporation, Bruker Corporation, Danaher Corporation and Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. In the markets served by TA, the Company’s principal competitors include: PerkinElmer, Inc., Mettler-Toledo International Inc., NETZSCH-Geraetebau GmbH, Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Malvern PANalytical Ltd. as a subsidiary of Spectris plc and Anton-Paar GmbH.

The market for consumable LC products, including separation columns, is highly competitive and generally more fragmented than the analytical instruments market. The Company encounters competition in the consumable columns market from chemical companies that produce column sorbents and small specialized companies that primarily pack purchased sorbents into columns and subsequently package and distribute columns. The Company believes that it is one of the few suppliers that processes silica and polymeric resins, packs columns and distributes its own products. The Company competes in this market on the basis of performance, reproducibility, reputation and, to a lesser extent, price. In recent years, the Company’s principal competitors for consumable products have included: Danaher Corporation; Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany; Agilent Technologies, Inc.; General Electric Company and Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. The ACQUITY UPLC instrument is designed to offer a predictable level of performance when used with ACQUITY UPLC columns and the Company believes that the expansion of the ACQUITY UPLC instrument base will enhance its chromatographic column business because of the high level of synergy between ACQUITY UPLC columns and the ACQUITY UPLC instruments.

Patents, Trademarks and Licenses

The Company owns a number of United States and foreign patents and has patent applications pending in the United States and abroad. Certain technology and software has been acquired or is licensed from third parties. The Company also owns a number of trademarks. The Company’s patents, trademarks and licenses are viewed as valuable assets to its operations. However, the Company believes that no one patent or group of patents, trademark or license is, in and of itself, essential to the Company such that its loss would materially affect the Company’s business as a whole.

Environmental Matters and Climate Change

The Company is subject to federal, state and local laws, regulations and ordinances that (i) govern activities or operations that may have adverse environmental effects, such as discharges to air and water as well as handling and disposal practices for solid and hazardous wastes, and (ii) impose liability for the costs of cleaning up and certain damages resulting from sites of past spills, disposals or other releases of hazardous substances. The Company believes that it currently conducts its operations and has operated its business in the past in substantial compliance with applicable environmental laws. From time to time, Company operations have resulted or may result in noncompliance with environmental laws or liability for cleanup pursuant to environmental laws. The Company does not currently anticipate any material adverse effect on its operations, financial condition or competitive position as a result of its efforts to comply with environmental laws.

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The Company is sensitive to the growing global debate with respect to climate change. An internal sustainability working group develops increasingly robust data with respect to the Company’s utilization of carbon producing substances in an effort to continuously reduce the Company’s carbon footprint. In 2014, the Company published a sustainability report identifying the various actions and behaviors the Company has adopted concerning its commitment to both the environment and the broader topic of social responsibility. See Item 1A, Risk Factors — The effects of climate change could harm the Company’s business, for more information on the potential significance of climate change legislation. See also Note 16 in the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements for financial information about geographic areas.

Available Information

The Company files or furnishes all required reports with the SEC. The public may read and copy any materials the Company files or furnishes with the SEC at the SEC’s Public Reference Room at 100 F Street, N.E., Washington, DC 20549. The public may obtain information on the operation of the Public Reference Room by calling the SEC at 1-800-SEC-0330.

The Company is an electronic filer and the SEC maintains a website that contains reports, proxy and information statements and other information regarding issuers that file electronically with the SEC. The address of the SEC electronic filing website is http://www.sec.gov. The Company also makes available, free of charge on its website, its annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and any amendments to those reports as soon as reasonably practicable after such material is electronically filed with or furnished to the SEC. The website address for Waters Corporation is http://www.waters.com and SEC filings can be found under the caption “Investors”.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain of the statements in this Form 10-K and the documents incorporated herein, may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), with respect to future results and events, including any statements regarding, among other items, anticipated trends or growth in the Company’s business, including, but not limited to, the impact of foreign currency translation on financial results; development of products by acquired businesses; the growth rate of sales and research and development expenses; the impact of costs associated with developing new technologies and bringing these new technologies to market; the impact of new product launches and the associated costs, such as the amortization expense related to software platforms; geographic sales mix of business; development of products by acquired businesses and the amount of contingent payments to the sellers of an acquired business; anticipated expenses, including interest expense, capitalized software costs and effective tax rates; the impact of the newly enacted tax reform in the U.S.; the impact and outcome of the Company’s various ongoing tax audit examinations; the achievement of contractual milestones to preserve foreign tax rates; the impact and outcome of litigation matters; the impact of the loss of intellectual property protection; the impact of new accounting standards and pronouncements; the adequacy of the Company’s supply chain and manufacturing capabilities and facilities; the impact of regulatory compliance; the Company’s expected cash flow, borrowing capacity, debt repayment and refinancing; the Company’s ability to fund working capital, capital expenditures, service debt, repay outstanding lines of credit, make authorized share repurchases, fund potential acquisitions and pay any adverse litigation or tax audit liabilities, particularly in the U.S.; future impairment charges; the Company’s contributions to defined benefit plans; the Company’s expectations regarding changes to its financial position; compliance with applicable environmental laws; and the impact of recent acquisitions on sales and earnings.

Many of these statements appear, in particular, under the heading “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in Part II, Item 7 of this Form 10-K. Statements that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed forward-looking statements. You can identify these forward-looking statements by the use of the words “feels”, “believes”, “anticipates”, “plans”, “expects”, “may”, “will”, “would”,

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“intends”, “suggests”, “appears”, “estimates”, “projects”, “should” and similar expressions, whether in the negative or affirmative. These statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, many of which are outside the control of the Company, including, and without limitation:

Certain of these and other factors are further described below in Item 1A, Risk Factors, of this Form 10-K. Actual results or events could differ materially from the plans, intentions and expectations disclosed in the forward-looking statements, whether because of these factors or for other reasons. All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this annual report on Form 10-K and are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements included in this report. Except as required by law, the Company does not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

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The Company is subject to risks common to companies in the analytical instrument industry, including, but not limited to, the following:

The Company’s international operations may be negatively affected by political events, wars or terrorism and regulatory changes, related to either a specific country or a larger region. These potential political, currency and economic disruptions, as well as foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations, could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s results of operations or financial condition.

Approximately 71% and 69% of the Company’s net sales in 2017 and 2016, respectively, were outside of the United States and were primarily denominated in foreign currencies. In addition, the Company has considerable manufacturing operations in Ireland and the United Kingdom, as well as significant subcontractors located in Singapore. As a result, a significant portion of the Company’s sales and operations are subject to certain risks, including adverse developments in the political, regulatory and economic environment, in particular, uncertainty regarding possible changes to foreign and domestic trade policy; the effect of the U.K. voting to exit the European Union as well as the financial difficulties and debt burden experienced by a number of European countries; the instability and potential impact of war or terrorism; the instability and possible dissolution of the Euro as a single currency; sudden movements in a country’s foreign exchange rates due to a change in a country’s sovereign risk profile or foreign exchange regulatory practices; tariffs and other trade barriers; difficulties in staffing and managing foreign operations; and associated adverse operational, contractual and tax consequences.

Additionally, the U.S. dollar value of the Company’s net sales, cost of sales, operating expenses, interest, taxes and net income varies with foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations. Significant increases or decreases in the value of the U.S. dollar relative to certain foreign currencies, particularly the Euro, Japanese yen and British pound, could have a material adverse effect or benefit on the Company’s results of operations or financial condition.

Global economic conditions may decrease demand for the Company’s products and harm the Company’s financial results.

The Company is a global business that may be adversely affected by changes in global economic conditions. These changes in global economic conditions, both inside and outside the U.S., may affect the demand for the Company’s products and services. This may result in a decline in sales in the future, increased rate of order cancellations or delays, increased risk of excess or obsolete inventories, longer sales cycles and potential difficulty in collecting sales proceeds. There can be no assurance regarding demand for the Company’s products and services in the future.

The Company’s financial results are subject to changes in customer demand, which may decrease for a number of reasons, many beyond the Company’s control.

The demand for the Company’s products is dependent upon the size of the markets for its LC, LC-MS, thermal analysis, rheometry and calorimetry products; the timing and level of capital spending and expenditures of the Company’s customers; changes in governmental regulations, particularly affecting drug, food and drinking water testing; funding available to governmental, academic and research institutions; general economic conditions and the rate of economic growth in the Company’s major markets; and competitive considerations. The Company typically experiences an increase in sales in its fourth quarter as a result of purchasing habits for capital goods by customers that tend to exhaust their spending budgets by calendar year end. There can be no assurance that the Company’s results of operations or financial condition will not be adversely impacted by a change in any of the factors listed above or the continuation of uncertain global economic conditions.

Additionally, the analytical instrument market may, from time to time, experience low sales growth. Approximately 56% of the Company’s net sales in both 2017 and 2016 were to the worldwide pharmaceutical

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and biotechnology industries, which may be periodically subject to unfavorable market conditions and consolidations. Unfavorable industry conditions could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s results of operations or financial condition.

Disruption in worldwide financial markets could adversely impact the Company’s access to capital and financial condition.

Financial markets in the U.S., Europe and Asia have experienced times of extreme disruption in recent years, including, among other things, sharp increases in the cost of new capital, credit rating downgrades and bailouts, severely diminished capital availability and severely reduced liquidity in money markets. Financial and banking institutions have also experienced disruptions, resulting in large asset write-downs, higher costs of capital, rating downgrades and reduced desire to lend money. There can be no assurance that there will not be future deterioration or prolonged disruption in financial markets or financial institutions. Any future deterioration or prolonged disruption in financial markets or financial institutions in which the Company participates may impair the Company’s ability to access its existing cash, utilize its existing syndicated bank credit facility funded by such financial institutions, and impair its ability to access sources of new capital. The cost to the Company of any new capital raised and interest expense would increase if this were to occur.

Competitors may introduce more effective or less expensive products than the Company’s, which could result in decreased sales. The competitive landscape may transform as a result of potential changes in ownership, mergers and continued consolidations among the Company’s competitors, which could harm the Company’s business.

The analytical instrument market and, in particular, the portion related to the Company’s HPLC, UPLC, LC-MS, thermal analysis, rheometry and calorimetry product lines, is highly competitive and subject to rapid changes in technology. The Company encounters competition from several international instrument suppliers and other companies in both domestic and foreign markets. Some competitors have instrument businesses that are generally more diversified than the Company’s business, but are typically less focused on the Company’s chosen markets. Over the years, some competitors have merged with other competitors for various reasons, some of which include increasing product line offerings, improving market share and reducing costs. There can be no assurance that the Company’s competitors will not introduce more effective and less costly products than those of the Company or that the Company will be able to increase its sales and profitability from new product introductions. There can be no assurance that the Company’s sales and marketing forces will compete successfully against the Company’s competitors in the future.

Strategies for organic growth require developing new technologies and bringing these new technologies to market, which could negatively impact the Company’s financial results.

The Company is in the process of developing new products with recently acquired technologies. The future development of these new products will require a significant amount of spending over the next few years before significant, robust sales will be realized. These new products will be sold into both the clinical and non-clinical markets, and any new products requiring FDA clearance may take longer to bring to market. There can be no assurance given as to the timing of these new product launches and the ultimate realization of sales and profitability in the future.

In addition, despite testing prior to the release and throughout the lifecycle of a product or service, the Company’s software or hardware may contain coding or manufacturing errors that could impact their function, performance and security, and result in other negative consequences. The detection and correction of any errors in released software or hardware can be time consuming and costly. This could delay the development or release of new products or services, or new versions of products or services, create security vulnerabilities in the Company’s products or services, and adversely affect market acceptance of products or services. If the Company experiences errors or delays in releasing its software or hardware, or new versions thereof, its sales could be affected and revenues could decline. Errors in software or hardware could expose the Company to product liability, performance and warranty claims as well as harm to brand and reputation, which could impact future sales.

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Disruption of operations at the Company’s manufacturing facilities could harm the Company’s financial condition.

The Company manufactures LC instruments at facilities in Milford, Massachusetts and through a subcontractor in Singapore; precision chemistry separation columns at its facilities in Taunton, Massachusetts and Wexford, Ireland; MS products at its facilities in Wilmslow, England, Solihull, England and Wexford, Ireland; thermal analysis and rheometry products at its facilities in New Castle, Delaware and other instruments and consumables at various other locations as a result of the Company’s acquisitions. Any prolonged disruption to the operations at any of these facilities, whether due to labor difficulties, destruction of or damage to any facility or other reasons, could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s results of operations or financial condition.

The loss of key members of management and the risks inherent in succession planning could adversely affect the Company’s results of operations or financial condition.

The operation of the Company requires managerial and operational expertise. None of the Company’s key management employees, with the exception of the President and Chief Executive Officer and the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, have an employment contract with the Company and there can be no assurance that such individuals will remain with the Company. If, for any reason, other such key personnel do not continue to be active in management, the Company’s results of operations or financial condition could be adversely affected.

Failure to adequately protect intellectual property could have materially adverse effects on the Company’s results of operations or financial condition.

The Company vigorously protects its intellectual property rights and seeks patent coverage on all developments that it regards as material and patentable. However, there can be no assurance that any patents held by the Company will not be challenged, invalidated or circumvented or that the rights granted thereunder will provide competitive advantages to the Company. Conversely, there could be successful claims against the Company by third-party patent holders with respect to certain Company products that may infringe the intellectual property rights of such third parties. The Company’s patents, including those licensed from others, expire on various dates. If the Company is unable to protect its intellectual property rights, it could have an adverse and material effect on the Company’s results of operations or financial condition.

The Company’s business would suffer if the Company were unable to acquire adequate sources of supply.

Most of the raw materials, components and supplies purchased by the Company are available from a number of different suppliers; however, a number of items are purchased from limited or single sources of supply and disruption of these sources could have, at a minimum, a temporary adverse effect on shipments and the financial results of the Company. A prolonged inability to obtain certain materials or components could have an adverse effect on the Company’s financial condition or results of operations and could result in damage to its relationships with its customers and, accordingly, adversely affect the Company’s business.

The Company’s sales would deteriorate if the Company’s outside contractors fail to provide necessary components or modules.

Certain components or modules of the Company’s LC and MS instruments are manufactured by outside contractors, including the manufacturing of LC instrument systems and related components by contract manufacturing firms in Singapore. Disruptions of service by these outside contractors could have an adverse effect on the supply chain and the financial results of the Company. A prolonged inability to obtain these components or modules could have an adverse effect on the Company’s financial condition or results of operations.

The Company’s business could be harmed by actions of distributors and other third parties that sell our products.

The Company sells some products through third parties, including distributors and value-added resellers. This exposes us to various risks, including competitive pressure, concentration of sales volumes, credit risks and

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compliance risks. We may rely on one or a few key distributors for a product or market and the loss of these distributors could reduce our revenue or net earnings. Distributors may also face financial difficulties, including bankruptcy, which could harm our collection of accounts receivable. Violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (“FCPA”), the U.K. Bribery Act or similar anti-bribery laws by distributors or other third-party intermediaries could materially impact our business. Risks related to our use of distributors may reduce sales, increase expenses and weaken our competitive position.

The Company may be harmed by improper conduct of any of our employees, agents or business partners.

We cannot provide assurance that our internal controls and compliance systems will always protect the Company from acts committed by employees, agents or business partners that would violate domestic and international laws, including laws governing payments to government officials, bribery, fraud, kickbacks and false claims, pricing, sales and marketing practices, conflicts of interest, competition, export and import compliance, money laundering and data privacy. In particular, the FCPA, the U.K. Bribery Act and similar anti-bribery laws generally prohibit companies and their intermediaries from making improper payments to government officials for the purpose of obtaining or retaining business, and we operate in many parts of the world that have experienced governmental corruption to some degree. Any such improper actions or allegations of such acts could damage our reputation and subject us to civil or criminal investigations in the U.S. and in other jurisdictions and related shareholder lawsuits, could lead to substantial civil and criminal, monetary and non-monetary penalties and could cause us to incur significant legal and investigatory fees. In addition, the government may seek to hold us liable as a successor for violations committed by companies in which we invest or that we acquire. We also rely on our suppliers to adhere to our supplier standards of conduct and material violations of such standards of conduct could occur that could have a material effect on our business, reputation and financial statements.

The Company’s financial results are subject to unexpected shifts in pre-tax income between tax jurisdictions, changing application of tax law and tax audit examinations.

The Company is subject to rates of income tax that range from 0% to in excess of 35% in various jurisdictions in which it conducts business. In addition, the Company typically generates a substantial portion of its income in the fourth quarter of each fiscal year. Geographical shifts in income from previous quarters’ projections caused by factors including, but not limited to, changes in volume and product mix and fluctuations in foreign currency translation rates, could therefore have potentially significant favorable or unfavorable effects on the Company’s income tax expense, effective tax rate and results of operations.

Governments in the jurisdictions in which the Company operates implement changes to tax laws and regulations from time to time. Any changes in corporate income tax rates or regulations regarding transfer pricing or repatriation of dividends or capital, as well as changes in the interpretation of existing tax laws and regulations, in the jurisdictions in which the Company operates could adversely affect the Company’s cash flow and lead to increases in its overall tax burden, which would negatively affect the Company’s profitability.

On December 22, 2017, the U.S. enacted legislation informally referred to as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “2017 Tax Act”). The 2017 Tax Act changed the U.S. tax system to a territorial tax system, including base broadening measures on non-U.S. earnings, whereby historical unremitted, earnings of foreign subsidiaries are deemed to have been repatriated to the U.S. in 2017 regardless of when the assets are actually remitted to the U.S., as well as reducing or eliminating certain domestic deductions and credits and limiting the deductibility of interest expense and executive compensation. Earnings deemed to have been distributed to the U.S. in accordance with the aforementioned 2017 Tax Act deemed distribution rules are subject to a Transition Toll Tax (“Transition Tax”), which is a one-time, mandatory deemed repatriation tax on the accumulated foreign earnings that have not been previously taxed. To the extent those earnings are deemed to have been invested in cash and cash equivalents, they will be taxed at a rate of 15.5%; the remainder of those earnings will be taxed at a rate of 8.0%. As a result, the Company’s historical unremitted foreign earnings were deemed repatriated in 2017 and the Company incurred a $550 million estimated tax provision, which primarily consisted of an estimated Transition

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Tax, as well as estimated income tax provisions for state and withholding taxes and a provision associated with the remeasurement of the Company’s deferred tax assets and liabilities from 35% to the new U.S. corporate income tax rate of 21%. The Transition Tax will be paid over an eight-year period, starting in 2018, and will not accrue interest. The final impact of the 2017 Tax Act may differ from these estimates, due to, among other things, changes in interpretations, analysis and assumptions made by the Company, additional guidance that may be issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury and tax planning actions that the Company may undertake.

The Company continues to be permanently reinvested in relation to the cumulative historical outside basis difference that is not related to the unremitted earnings that were taxed. We will continue to evaluate our assertions, including intentions and plans, on the cumulative historical outside basis differences, not related to the unremitted earnings that were taxed, in our foreign subsidiaries as of December 31, 2017. In accordance with authoritative guidance issued by the SEC, we expect to finalize our analysis and accounting related to the toll charge, deferred tax assets and liabilities and any remaining outside basis differences in our foreign subsidiaries during the measurement period; however, there can be no assurance given that these amounts will not need to be revised in the future, affecting the future financial condition and results of operations of the Company.

Going forward, the Company estimates that its effective tax rate will increase approximately one to three percentage points in the future; however, there can be no assurance given that the estimated future effective income tax rate increase will not be different and there can be no assurances that it will not have a material impact on the Company’s results of operations or financial condition.

The Company has a contractual tax rate in Singapore of 0% through March 2021, based upon the achievement and continued satisfaction of certain operational and financial milestones, which the Company expects to continue to meet. Currently, the Company has determined that it is more likely than not to realize the contractual tax rate in Singapore of 0% and has not recognized any uncertain tax benefit in its balance sheet related to the achievement of the contractual milestones in Singapore. In the event that it appears that the milestone targets will not be met, the Company will no longer be entitled to a 0% contractual tax rate benefit on income earned in Singapore dating back to the start date of the agreement (April 1, 2016), at which time all tax benefits previously recorded would be reversed and an income tax charge equal to the statutory tax of 17% on income earned during that period would be recorded.

As a global business, the Company is subject to tax audit examinations in various jurisdictions throughout the world. The Company must manage the cost and disruption of responding to governmental audits, investigation and proceedings, whether or not they have merit. In addition, the impact of the settlement of pending or future tax audit examination could have an unfavorable effect on the Company’s income tax expense, effective tax rate and results of operations.

The Company’s financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected if the Company is unable to maintain a sufficient level of cash flow.

The Company had $1,998 million in debt and $3,394 million in cash, cash equivalents and investments as of December 31, 2017. As of December 31, 2017, the Company also had the ability to borrow an additional $498 million from its existing, committed credit facility. All but a small portion of the Company’s debt was in the U.S. There is a substantial cash requirement in the U.S. to fund operations and capital expenditures, service debt interest obligations, finance potential U.S. acquisitions and continue authorized stock repurchase programs in the U.S. A majority of the Company’s cash is generated from foreign operations, with $3,326 million of the Company’s cash, cash equivalents and investments held by foreign subsidiaries. At December 31, 2017, the Company’s cash, cash equivalents and investments generated from foreign subsidiaries have effectively been repatriated to the U.S., providing the Company with the ability to access the cash, cash equivalents and investments to satisfy U.S. cash requirements; however, the Company’s financial condition and results of operations could still be adversely impacted if the Company is unable to maintain a sufficient level of cash flow to address these requirements through (1) cash from operations, (2) the Company’s ability to access its existing

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cash and revolving credit facility, (3) the ability to expand the Company’s borrowing capacity and (4) other sources of capital obtained at an acceptable cost.

Debt covenants, and the Company’s failure to comply with them, could negatively impact the Company’s capital and financial results.

The Company’s debt is subject to restrictive debt covenants that limit the Company’s ability to engage in certain activities that could otherwise benefit the Company. These debt covenants include restrictions on the Company’s ability to enter into certain contracts or agreements, which may limit the Company’s ability to make dividend or other payments, secure other indebtedness, enter into transactions with affiliates and consolidate, merge or transfer all or substantially all of the Company’s assets. The Company is also required to meet specified financial ratios under the terms of the Company’s debt agreements. The Company’s ability to comply with these financial restrictions and all other covenants is dependent on the Company’s future performance, which is subject to, but not limited to, prevailing economic conditions and other factors, including factors that are beyond the Company’s control, such as foreign exchange rates, interest rates, changes in technology and changes in the level of competition. As of December 31, 2017, the Company was in compliance with all debt covenants.

Disruption, cyber attack or unforeseen problems with the security, maintenance or upgrade of the Company’s information and web-based systems could have an adverse effect on the Company’s operations and financial condition.

The Company relies on its technology infrastructure and that of its software and banking partners, among other functions, to interact with suppliers, sell products and services, fulfill contract obligations, ship products, collect and make electronic wire and check based payments and otherwise conduct business. The Company’s technology infrastructure may be vulnerable to damage or interruption from, but not limited to, natural disasters, power loss, telecommunication failures, terrorist attacks, computer viruses, unauthorized access to customer or employee data, unauthorized access to and funds transfers from Company bank accounts and other attempts to harm the Company’s systems. Any prolonged disruption to the Company’s technology infrastructure, at any of its facilities, could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s results of operations or financial condition.

If the Company’s security measures are compromised or fail to adequately protect its technology infrastructure, research and development efforts or manufacturing operations, the Company’s products and services may be perceived as vulnerable or unreliable, the information the Company’s controls and processes may be subject to unauthorized access, acquisition or modification, the Company’s brand and reputation could be damaged, the services that the Company provides to its customers could be disrupted, and customers may stop using the Company’s products and services, all of which could reduce the Company’s revenue and earnings, increase its expenses and expose the Company to legal claims and regulatory actions.

The Company is in the business of designing, manufacturing, selling and servicing analytical instruments to life science, pharmaceutical, biochemical, industrial, nutritional safety, and environmental, academic and governmental customers working in research and development, quality assurance and other laboratory applications, and the Company is also a developer and supplier of software-based products that support instrument systems. Many of the Company’s customers are in highly regulated industries. While the Company has invested time and resources implementing measures designed to protect the integrity and security of its technology infrastructure, research and development processes, manufacturing operations, products and services, and the internal and external data managed by the Company, there is a risk these measures will be defeated or compromised or that they are otherwise insufficient to protect against existing or emerging threats. The Company also has acquired companies, products, services and technologies over time and may inherit risk when integrating these acquisitions into the Company. In addition, at times, the Company faces attempts by third parties to defeat its security measures or exploit vulnerabilities in its systems. These risks will increase as the Company continues to grow and expand geographically, and its systems, products and services become increasingly digital and sensor- and web-based.

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The Company could suffer significant damage to its brand and reputation if a security incident resulted in unauthorized access to, acquisition of, or modification to the Company’s technology infrastructure, research and development processes, manufacturing operations, its products and services as well as the internal and external data managed by the Company. Such an incident could disrupt the Company’s operations and customers could lose confidence in the Company’s ability to deliver quality and reliable products or services. This could negatively impact sales and could increase costs related to fixing and addressing these incidents and any vulnerabilities exposed by them, as well as to lawsuits, regulatory investigations, claims or legal liability including contractual liability, costs and expenses owed to customers and business partners.

Compliance failures could harm the Company’s business.

The Company is subject to regulation by various federal, state and foreign governments and agencies in areas including, among others, health and safety, import/export, privacy and data protection, FCPA and environmental laws and regulations. A portion of the Company’s operations are subject to regulation by the FDA and similar foreign regulatory agencies. These regulations are complex and govern an array of product activities, including design, development, labeling, manufacturing, promotion, sales and distribution. Any failure by the Company to comply with applicable governmental regulations could result in product recalls, the imposition of fines, restrictions on the Company’s ability to conduct or expand its operations or the cessation of all or a portion of its operations.

Regulators globally are increasingly imposing greater fines and penalties for privacy and data protection violations, and the European Union has enacted a broad data protection regulation with fines based on a percentage of global revenues. Changes in laws or regulations associated with enhanced protection of certain sensitive types of personal information, such as information related to health, could greatly increase the cost of compliance and the cost of providing the Company’s products or services. Any failure, or perceived failure, by the Company to comply with laws and regulations on privacy, data security or consumer protection, or other policies, public perception, standards, self-regulatory requirements or legal obligations, could result in lost or restricted business, proceedings, actions or fines brought against the Company or levied by governmental entities or others, or could otherwise adversely affect the business and harm the Company’s reputation.

Some of the Company’s operations are subject to domestic and international laws and regulations with respect to the manufacturing, handling, use or sale of toxic or hazardous substances. This requires the Company to devote substantial resources to maintain compliance with those applicable laws and regulations. If the Company fails to comply with such requirements in the manufacturing or distribution of its products, it could face civil and/or criminal penalties and potentially be prohibited from distributing or selling such products until they are compliant.

Some of the Company’s products are also subject to the rules of certain industrial standards bodies, such as the International Standards Organization. The Company must comply with these rules, as well as those of other agencies, such as the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Failure to comply with such rules could result in the loss of certification and/or the imposition of fines and penalties, which could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s operations.

As a publicly-traded company, the Company is subject to the rules of the SEC and the New York Stock Exchange. In addition, the Company must comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley rules, which require the Company to establish and maintain adequate internal control over financial reporting. The Company’s efforts to comply with such laws and regulations are time consuming and costly. While we continue to enhance our controls, we cannot be certain that we will be able to prevent future significant deficiencies or material weaknesses. Failure to comply with such rules or having inadequate internal controls could have a material adverse effect on the Company’s financial condition and operations, which could cause investors to lose confidence in our reported financial information and could have a negative effect on the trading price of our stock and our access to capital.

The Company is subject to the rules of the SEC under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, requiring disclosure as to whether certain materials (tantalum, tin, gold and tungsten), known as

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conflict minerals, which may be contained in the Company’s products, are mined from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and adjoining countries. In 2016, the Company was not able to determine with certainty the country of origin of some of the conflict minerals in its manufactured products. However, the Company does not have knowledge that any of its conflict minerals originated from the Democratic Republic of the Congo or adjoining countries. The Company is in the process of evaluating its 2017 supply chain, and the Company plans to file its 2017 Form SD with the SEC in May 2018. The results of this and future evaluations may impose additional costs and may introduce new risks related to the Company’s ability to verify the origin of any conflict minerals contained in its products.

The Company’s financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected by changes to the Company’s retirement plans or retirement plan assets.

The Company sponsors various retirement plans, both inside and outside the U.S. Any changes in regulations made by governments in countries in which the Company sponsors retirement plans could adversely impact the Company’s cash flows or results of operations. In connection with these retirement plans, the Company is exposed to market risks associated with changes in the various capital markets. For example, changes in long-term interest rates affect the discount rate that is used to measure the Company’s retirement plan obligations and related expense. In addition, changes in the market value of investments held by the retirement plans could materially impact the funded status of the retirement plans, and affect the related pension expense and level and timing of contributions required under applicable laws.

Estimates and assumptions made in accounting for the Company’s results from operations are dependent on future results, which involve significant judgments and may be imprecise and may differ materially from actual results.

The preparation of consolidated financial statements in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles requires the Company to make estimates and judgments that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenues and expenses, and related disclosure of contingent liabilities at the dates of the financial statements. These estimates and assumptions must be made due to certain information used in preparation of our financial statements which is dependent on future events, cannot be calculated with a high degree of precision from data available or is not capable of being readily calculated based on generally accepted methodologies. The Company believes that the accounting related to revenue recognition, product returns and allowances, bad debts, inventory valuation, goodwill and intangible assets, income taxes, warranty and installation provisions, litigation, retirement plan obligations, stock-based compensation, equity investments, business combinations and asset acquisitions, uncertain tax positions and contingencies involves significant judgments and estimates. Actual results for all estimates could differ materially from the estimates and assumptions used, which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations.

The effects of climate change could harm the Company’s business.

The Company’s manufacturing processes for certain of its products involve the use of chemicals and other substances that are regulated under various international, federal, state and local laws governing the environment. In the event that any future climate change legislation would require that stricter standards be imposed by domestic or international environmental regulatory authorities with respect to the use and/or levels of possible emissions from such chemicals and/or other substances, the Company may be required to make certain changes and adaptations to its manufacturing processes. Any such changes could have a material adverse effect on the financial statements of the Company.

Another potential effect of climate change is an increase in the severity of global weather conditions. The Company’s manufacturing facilities are located in the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland and Germany. In addition, the Company manufactures a growing percentage of its HPLC, UPLC and MS products in both Singapore and Ireland. Severe weather and geological conditions or events, including earthquakes, hurricanes and/or tsunamis, could potentially cause significant damage to the Company’s manufacturing facilities in each of

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these countries. The effects of such damage and the resulting disruption of manufacturing operations and the impact of lost sales could have a material adverse impact on the financial results of the Company.

None.

Waters Corporation operates 21 United States facilities and 73 international facilities, including field offices. The Company believes its facilities are suitable and adequate for its current production level and for reasonable growth over the next several years. The Company’s primary facilities are summarized in the table below.

Primary Facility Locations

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The Company operates and maintains 11 field offices in the United States and 61 field offices abroad in addition to sales offices in the primary facilities listed above. The Company’s field office locations are listed below.

Field Office Locations (2)

From time to time, the Company and its subsidiaries are involved in various litigation matters arising in the ordinary course of business. The Company believes it has meritorious arguments in its current litigation matters and believes any outcome, either individually or in the aggregate, will not be material to the Company’s financial position or results of operations.

Not applicable.

EXECUTIVE OFFICERS OF THE REGISTRANT

Officers of the Company are elected annually by the Board of Directors and hold office at the discretion of the Board of Directors. The following persons serve as executive officers of the Company:

Christopher J. O’Connell, 51, has served as a Director of the Company since September 2015, when he assumed the position of President and Chief Executive Officer of the Company. In December 2017, Mr. O’Connell was appointed as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Company. Mr. O’Connell served as Executive Vice President and President of Restorative Therapies Group of Medtronic plc from August 2009 to August 2015. From 1994 to August 2009, Mr. O’Connell served in the following positions at Medtronic plc: Senior Vice President and President of Medtronic Diabetes, President of Medtronic Physio-Control, Vice President of Sales and Marketing for the Cardiac Rhythm Management business, Vice President/General Manager of the Patient Management Business, Vice President of Corporate Strategy, Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Development Associate.

Mark T. Beaudouin, 63, was appointed Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary in February 2016 and was Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of the Company since April 2003. Prior to joining Waters Corporation, he served as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of PAREXEL International Corporation, a bio/pharmaceutical services company, from January 2000 to April 2003. Previously, from May 1985 to January 2000, Mr. Beaudouin served in several senior legal management positions, including Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of BC International, Inc., a development stage biotechnology company, First Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of J. Baker, Inc., a diversified retail company, and General Counsel and Secretary of GenRad, Inc., a high technology test equipment manufacturer.

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Sherry L. Buck, 54, was appointed Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer in January 2017. Previously, Ms. Buck served as the Vice President, Chief Financial Officer of Libbey Inc. since August 2012. From 1993 to 2012, Ms. Buck held several positions at Whirlpool Corporation, including Vice President, Finance/Chief Financial Officer, Global Product and Enterprise Cost Leadership; Vice President, Finance—US; Vice President, Cost Leadership; Vice President, Finance—International; and Vice President, Business Performance Management.

Dr. Michael C. Harrington, 57, was appointed Senior Vice President, Global Markets in February 2016. Dr. Harrington joined Waters Corporation in 1987 and has held several senior positions with Waters Corporation, including Vice President, Europe and Asia Pacific Operations, Senior Director of US Sales Operations, Director of US Chemistry Sales and General Manager of Phase Separations. Prior to joining Waters Corporation, Dr. Harrington held senior sales positions at Celsis, Inc.

Terrance P. Kelly, 55, was appointed Senior Vice President and President, TA Instruments in February 2016. Mr. Kelly has served as President, TA instruments since February 2005. Mr. Kelly started his career in finance and accounting at ICI in 1985. He joined DuPont in 1988. He held various sales and marketing positions with DuPont, and later TA Instruments. Mr. Kelly joined Waters Corporation in 1996, when TA Instruments was acquired.

Ian S. King, 61, was appointed Senior Vice President, Global Products in July 2017. Mr. King joined Waters in 1982 and previously served as Senior Vice President, Instrument Technology; Vice President, Separations Technologies; and Vice President and General Manager of Consumable Division, as well as a variety of scientific and management positions in Waters Corporation’s international subsidiaries. Prior to joining Waters Corporation, Mr. King worked at Edinburgh University as a research scientist.

Elizabeth B. Rae, 60, was appointed Senior Vice President, Global Human Resources in February 2016 and was Vice President of Human Resources since October 2005 and Vice President of Worldwide Compensation and Benefits since January 2002. Ms. Rae joined Waters Corporation in January 1996 as Director of Worldwide Compensation. Prior to joining Waters Corporation, she held senior human resources positions in retail, healthcare and financial services companies.

David A. Terricciano, 62, was appointed Senior Vice President, Global Operations in February 2016. Mr. Terricciano previously served as Vice President of Global Operations since August 2001. Prior to joining Waters Corporation, he worked as Vice President and General Manager of Operations for Perkin-Elmer Instruments. Previously, he held a variety of executive positions at Goodrich Aerospace, Honeywell Aerospace and Textron Corporation.

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PART II

The Company’s common stock is registered under the Exchange Act, and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “WAT”. As of February 16, 2018, the Company had 92 common stockholders of record. The Company has not declared or paid any dividends on its common stock in its past three fiscal years. The Company has not made any sales of unregistered equity securities in the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 or 2015.

Securities Authorized for Issuance under Equity Compensation Plans

Equity compensation plan information is incorporated by reference from Part III, Item 12, Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters, of this document and should be considered an integral part of this Item 5.

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Stock Price Performance Graph

The following performance graph and related information shall not be deemed to be “soliciting material” or to be “filed” with the SEC, nor shall such information be incorporated by reference into any future filing under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, or the Exchange Act, except to the extent that the Company specifically incorporates it by reference into such filing.

The following graph compares the cumulative total return on $100 invested as of December 31, 2012 (the last day of public trading of the Company’s common stock in fiscal year 2012) through December 31, 2017 (the last day of public trading of the common stock in fiscal year 2017) in the Company’s common stock, the NYSE Market Index, the SIC Code 3826 Index, the S&P 500 Index and the S&P Health Care Index. The return of the indices is calculated assuming reinvestment of dividends during the period presented. The Company has not paid any dividends since its IPO. The stock price performance shown on the graph below is not necessarily indicative of future price performance.

COMPARISON OF CUMULATIVE TOTAL RETURN SINCE DECEMBER 31, 2012

AMONG WATERS CORPORATION, NYSE MARKET INDEX, SIC CODE 3826 INDEX –

LABORATORY ANALYTICAL INSTRUMENTS, S&P 500 INDEX

AND S&P HEALTH CARE INDEX

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Market for Registrant’s Common Equity

The quarterly range of high and low sales prices for the Company’s common stock as reported by the New York Stock Exchange is as follows:

Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer

The following table provides information about purchases by the Company during the three months ended December 31, 2017 of equity securities registered by the Company under the Exchange Act (in thousands, except per share data):

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The following table sets forth selected historical consolidated financial and operating data for the periods indicated. The statement of operations and balance sheet data is derived from financial statements for the years 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013. The Company’s financial statements as of December 31, 2017 and 2016, and for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2017 are included in Item 8, Financial Statements and Supplementary Data, in Part II of this Form 10-K.

The Company adopted new accounting guidance related to stock-based compensation in 2017. The new accounting guidance requires the excess tax benefits or deficiencies related to stock-based compensation to be reflected in the consolidated statements of operations as a component of the provision for income taxes, whereas they were previously recognized in equity. This aspect of the new accounting guidance was required to be adopted on a prospective basis for the statement of operations and retroactive restatement is not permitted. In 2017, the Company recognized an excess tax benefit, which decreased income tax expense by $20 million and added $0.24 to net income per diluted share.

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Business and Financial Overview

The Company has two operating segments: Waters^® and TA^®. Waters products and services primarily consist of high performance liquid chromatography (“HPLC”), ultra performance liquid chromatography (“UPLC^®” and together with HPLC, referred to as “LC”), mass spectrometry (“MS”) and precision chemistry consumable products and related services. TA products and services primarily consist of thermal analysis, rheometry and calorimetry instrument systems and service sales. The Company’s products are used by pharmaceutical, biochemical, industrial, nutritional safety, environmental, academic and governmental customers. These customers use the Company’s products to detect, identify, monitor and measure the chemical, physical and biological composition of materials and to predict the suitability and stability of fine chemicals, pharmaceuticals, water, polymers, metals and viscous liquids in various industrial, consumer goods and healthcare products.

The Company’s operating results are as follows for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015 (dollars in thousands, except per share data):

In 2017, the Company’s sales increased 7% as compared to 2016. This growth was balanced across all customer and product classes. Instrument system sales increased 6% and 4% in 2017 and 2016, respectively. The increased demand for instrument system sales in 2017 was balanced across our LC-MS and TA instrument systems, while the increase in 2016 was primarily due to LC-MS instrument systems. Recurring revenues (combined sales of precision chemistry consumables and services) increased 7% and 8% in 2017 and 2016, respectively, as a result of a larger installed base of customers and higher billing demand for service sales.

Geographically, the Company experienced 10% sales growth in both Europe and Asia in 2017, while sales in the Americas was flat in 2017 as compared to the previous year. The Americas’ sales growth was negatively impacted by natural disasters in the U.S., Mexico and Puerto Rico, as well as weaker customer sentiment in the first half of 2017. Europe’s sales growth can be primarily attributed to the increase in customer demand from the improvement in the European economy as well as the effect of foreign currency translation, which added 2% to

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sales growth in 2017. Asia’s sales growth was a result of the double-digit sales growth in China and India on strong demand for our products and services in those countries and in spite of lower customer demand in India in the second half of 2017 resulting from the implementation of the new Goods and Services Tax system.

In 2016, the Company’s sales grew 6% as compared to 2015, with strong sales in our pharmaceutical and industrial markets, including balance across all product classes. The effect of foreign currency translation increased sales by 1% in 2017 and decreased sales by 1% in 2016 across all products and services. Recent acquisitions had a minimal impact on sales growth in both 2017 and 2016.

Sales to pharmaceutical customers grew 7% and 9% in 2017 and 2016, respectively. These increases were driven by the increasing need for global access to prescription drugs and the testing of newer and more complex biologic drugs. Geographically, the growth within our pharmaceutical market in 2017 was driven by double-digit growth in China, India and Europe, while sales growth in 2016 was driven by double-digit growth in China and Japan.

Combined sales to industrial customers, which includes materials characterization, food, environmental and fine chemical markets, grew 4% and 6% in 2017 and 2016, respectively. The growth in both 2017 and 2016 was driven by recent product introductions and rising global regulatory standards in both food and materials markets. Geographically, industrial market sales growth was highest in China and India in 2017, with modest growth in other regions offset by flat sales in the Americas. In 2016, industrial market sales growth was highest in Europe, followed by Asia and offset by weakness in the U.S.

Combined sales to governmental and academic customers increased 8% in 2017 and decreased 4% in 2016. The increase in sales to governmental and academic customers in 2017 was broad-based across all geographies, with double-digit growth in Europe and the Americas. The decreases in 2016 were a result of these institutions reducing their spending on the Company’s products. In 2016, combined sales to governmental and academic customers grew in China and India but declined in all other regions. Sales to governmental and academic customers are highly dependent on when institutions receive funding to purchase our instrument systems and, as such, sales growth rates can vary significantly from period to period.

Operating income was $662 million in 2017, an increase of 6% as compared to 2016. This increase was primarily a result of the effect of higher sales volume achieved in 2017 being somewhat offset by the impact of $13 million of severance costs primarily associated with the closure of a facility in Germany and costs associated with providing U.S. employees with an early retirement transition incentive; an $11 million litigation settlement provision and related costs and a $5 million charge relating to a milestone payment for the licensing of certain intellectual property relating to mass spectrometry technologies yet to be commercialized. The change in operating income in 2017 as compared with 2016 was also impacted by $4 million of expense in 2017 related to the acceleration of certain stock awards as compared to $7 million of similar expense in 2016. Operating income increased 10% in 2016 as compared to 2015 as a result of higher sales volumes achieved in 2016 and the positive impact of foreign currency translation on our U.K. manufacturing and research and development costs as a result of the significantly weaker British Pound.

The provision for income taxes for 2017 includes a $550 million estimate for the impact of the enactment of the legislation informally referred to as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (the “2017 Tax Act”), which was signed into law on December 22, 2017. The 2017 Tax Act changed the U.S. tax system to a territorial system, including base broadening measures requiring the taxation of the Company’s historical unremitted foreign earnings through a deemed repatriation, which resulted in a $550 million income tax provision that reduced net income per share by $6.82 for the twelve months ended December 31, 2017, as well as eliminating or reducing certain domestic deductions and credits and limiting the deductibility of interest expense and executive compensation. The $550 million income tax provision primarily consists of an estimated Transition Toll Tax (“Transition Tax”) of $490 million, as well as estimated income tax provisions for state and withholding taxes of $40 million and a $20 million provision associated with the remeasurement of the Company’s deferred tax assets and liabilities

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from 35% to the new U.S. corporate income tax rate of 21%. The Transition Tax will be paid over an eight-year period, starting in 2018, and will not accrue interest. As a result of the 2017 Tax Act, the Company was able to gain access to its cash and investment balances held outside the U.S. in a tax efficient manner that can be used for any general corporate purposes in the U.S. Going forward, the Company estimates that its effective income tax rate will increase approximately one to three percentage points in the future. The final impact of the 2017 Tax Act may differ from these estimates due to, among other things, changes in interpretations, analysis and assumptions made by the Company, additional guidance that may be issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and tax planning actions that the Company may undertake.

In the first quarter of 2017, the Company adopted a new accounting standard that requires the excess tax benefit or deficiency on stock-based compensation to be included in the statement of operations as a component of the provision for income taxes, whereas previously it was recognized in equity. As a result, the Company recorded a tax benefit on stock-based compensation in 2017 that decreased income tax expense by $20 million and added $0.24 to net income per diluted share, respectively. Additionally, this standard required the Company to present the tax benefit in the consolidated statements of cash flows as an operating activity, whereas in the past this tax benefit was reflected as a financing activity. All prior periods presented in the cash flow have been adjusted accordingly.

The Company generated $698 million, $643 million and $573 million of net cash flows from operations in 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively. The increases in operating cash flow in each year were primarily a result of the increase in sales and operating income. Beginning in 2018, and for the next four years, the Company is required to make annual U.S. federal tax payments of approximately $40 million to tax authorities in connection with the estimated $550 million 2017 Tax Act liabilities. The remaining 60% of this liability is required to be paid over a three-year period beginning in 2023. Also as a result of the 2017 Tax Act, the Company is expecting to make $40 million in state and withholding tax payments during 2018.

Cash flows used in investing activities included capital expenditures related to property, plant, equipment and software capitalization of $85 million, $95 million and $100 million in 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively. In 2017, the Company made a $7 million payment for an investment in a developer of analytical system solutions used to make measurements, predict stability and accelerate product discovery in the routine analytic, process monitoring and quality control release processes for life science and biopharmaceutical markets. In addition, the Company made a milestone payment of $5 million in 2017 to acquire and license intellectual property. In September 2016, the Company acquired Rubotherm GmbH for approximately $6 million in cash. In February 2018, the Company’s Board of Directors approved expanding its precision chemistry consumable manufacturing operations. The Company anticipates spending an estimated $215 million to build and equip this new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility, which will be paid for with existing cash and investments and the Company does not expect to issue any debt in relation to this expansion.

In November 2017, the Company entered into a new credit agreement (the “2017 Credit Agreement”) that provides for a $1.5 billion revolving facility and a $300 million term loan. The revolving facility and term loan both mature on November 30, 2022 and require no scheduled prepayments before that date. The Company used $1.3 billion of the proceeds from the 2017 Credit Agreement to repay the outstanding amounts under the Company’s existing multi-borrower credit agreement dated June 2013 (the “2013 Credit Agreement”), which was terminated early without penalty. In May 2017, the Company’s Board of Directors authorized the Company to repurchase up to $1 billion of its outstanding common stock over a three-year period. During 2017, 2016 and 2015, the Company repurchased $323 million, $318 million and $327 million of the Company’s outstanding common stock, respectively, under authorized share repurchase programs. The Company believes that it has the financial flexibility to fund these share repurchases given current cash and investment levels and debt borrowing capacity, as well as to invest in research, technology and business acquisitions to further grow the Company’s sales and profits, especially now that the 2017 Tax Act provides the Company with access to its offshore cash at much lower income tax rates. As a result, the Company currently anticipates using $1 billion of cash repatriated into the U.S. to reduce debt and repurchase common stock shares on the open market during 2018.

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Results of Operations

Sales by Geography

Geographic sales information is presented below for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015 (in thousands):

In 2017, the sales growth in Asia was driven by double-digit increases in China’s sales across all product and customer classes. The increase in Asia Other in 2017 was driven by strong sales in India across all product and customer classes. Japan’s sales in 2017 were flat as the effect of foreign currency decreased sales by 3%. Japan’s sales in 2017 were driven by recurring revenue sales to governmental and academic customers. Europe’s sales in 2017 were balanced across all product lines and driven by sales to pharmaceutical, governmental and academic customers. Sales growth in the U.S. in 2017 was driven by TA instrument system sales and recurring revenues. In 2017, sales to the rest of the world were impacted by a decrease in demand from industrial customers resulting from recent natural disasters.

In 2016, sales growth in the U.S. was driven by increases in recurring revenues, which were offset by declines in instrument systems sales. U.S. sales increased to pharmaceutical customers but declined to non-pharmaceutical end-markets. Europe’s sales in 2016 were also driven by recurring revenues and primarily due to increases to pharmaceutical and industrial customers. China achieved strong sales growth in all product and customer classes in 2016, with double-digit growth in LC-MS instrument systems and precision chemistry consumables as well as double-digit growth to pharmaceutical customers. Japan’s increase in sales in 2016 was largely driven by the benefit of foreign currency translation, which increased sales by 12%. The increase in sales in the rest of Asia in 2016 was driven by LC-MS instrument systems and precision chemistry consumables sales to pharmaceutical and industrial customers. Sales to the rest of Asia decreased 6% due to the negative effect of foreign currency translation. Sales in the rest of the world in 2016 were broad-based across all product classes as sales increased to industrial customers but declined across all other customer classes.

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Waters Products and Services Net Sales

Net sales for Waters products and services are as follows for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015 (in thousands):

The increase in Waters instrument system sales (LC and MS technology-based) in both 2017 and 2016 is primarily attributable to higher sales of LC-MS systems that incorporate the Company’s tandem quadrupole technologies. Precision chemistry consumables sales increased in both 2017 and 2016 on the uptake in columns and application-specific testing kits. Waters service sales in both 2017 and 2016 benefited from increased sales of service plans and higher service demand billings to a higher installed base of customers. The effect of foreign currency translation had a minimal impact on Waters sales in both 2017 and 2016.

In 2017, Waters sales increased 10% in both Europe and Asia and were flat in the Americas. Waters sales increased 16% in China and were broad-based across all product and customer classes. Waters sales in Japan decreased 1%, primarily due to foreign currency translation, which decreased sales by 3%. Waters sales in the rest of Asia increased 8% and were driven by recurring revenues across all customer classes.

In 2016, Waters sales increased 2% in the U.S., 4% in Europe, 14% in Asia and 5% in the rest of the world. Waters sales increased 21% in China and were broad-based across all product and customer classes. Waters sales in Japan increased 15%, primarily due to the benefit of foreign currency translation, which increased sales by 12%. Waters sales in the rest of Asia increased 6% and were driven by product sales to pharmaceutical and industrial customers, offset by weakness within governmental and academic markets.

TA Product and Services Net Sales

Net sales for TA products and services are as follows for the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015 (in thousands):

TA instrument system sales rebounded across all major product categories after a flat sales growth in 2016. In 2017, TA instrument system sales grew from thermal instrument systems, which were fueled by continued acceptance of the recently introduced Discovery product line. In addition, TA’s rheology instrument systems saw strong performance across the entire range of products in the portfolio, driven by the Discovery Hybrid Rheometer and Rubber Rheometer instrument systems. TA service sales increased in both 2017 and 2016 due to sales of service plans and billings to a higher installed base of customers. The effect of foreign currency translation and recent acquisitions had a minimal impact on TA’s sales in both 2017 and 2016.

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In 2017, TA sales increased 14% in Asia, 11% in Europe and 5% in the Americas. TA achieved double-digit sales growth in Asia, with the exception of Japan, where a 5% sales growth included a 2% negative impact of foreign currency translation. TA sales in the U.S. in 2017 increased 8%, while the rest of the Americas declined after strong sales in the prior year. In 2016, TA sales increased 2% in both the Americas and Asia and increased 1% in Europe. TA sales were flat in the U.S. in 2016 but TA achieved a double-digit increase in the rest of the Americas. TA’s sales in Japan in 2016 increased 19%, with a 10% increase due to the benefit of foreign currency translation.

Cost of Sales

The increase in cost of sales for both 2017 and 2016 were consistent with the increase in sales volumes. The effect of foreign currency translation had a minimal impact on cost of sales in 2017. In 2016, cost of sales included the benefit of a weaker British pound, which reduced the Company’s U.K. manufacturing costs when translated into U.S. dollars.

Cost of sales are affected by many factors, including, but not limited to, foreign currency translation, product mix, product costs of instrument systems and amortization of software platforms. At current foreign currency exchange rates, the Company expects that the impact of foreign currency translation may increase sales and still negatively impact gross profit during 2018, as the foreign currency translation benefit expected on Euro and Japanese yen sales would be somewhat mitigated by the unfavorable effect of a stronger British pound on the Company’s U.K. manufacturing costs.

Selling and Administrative Expenses

Selling and administrative expenses increased 6% in 2017 and increased 3% in 2016. Selling and administrative expenses in both 2017 and 2016 were impacted by headcount additions and higher merit compensation costs, as well as $4 million and $7 million, respectively, of stock compensation expense related to the modification of certain stock awards upon the retirement of senior executives. In 2017, the Company incurred $13 million of severance costs in connection with the closure of a facility in Germany and an early retirement transition incentive program. Severance-related costs in 2016 and 2015 were $3 million and $3 million, respectively, in connection with a reduction in workforce. The effect of foreign currency translation increased selling and administrative expenses by 3% in 2017 and lowered these expenses by 2% in 2016.

As a percentage of net sales, selling and administrative expenses were 23.6%, 23.7% and 24.3% for 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively.

Research and Development Expenses

Research and development expenses increased 6% in both 2017 and 2016. Research and development expenses in both 2017 and 2016 were impacted by additional headcount, merit compensation and costs associated with new products and the development of new technology initiatives. In addition, the effect of foreign currency translation reduced research and development expenses by 4% and 7% in 2017 and 2016, respectively, primarily due to the weakening of the British pound on the Company’s U.K.-based research and development expenses. In 2016, research and development expenses also included a benefit of $2 million from a government grant.

Acquired In-Process Research and Development

During 2017 and 2015, the Company incurred charges of $5 million and $4 million, respectively, for acquired in-process research and development related to milestone payments associated with a licensing arrangement for certain intellectual property relating to mass spectrometry technologies yet to be commercialized and for which there was no future alternative use as of the acquisition date. These licensing arrangements are significantly related to new, biologically-focused applications, as well as other applications, and require the Company to make additional future payments of up to $7 million if certain milestones are achieved, as well as royalties on future net sales. These future payments may be significant and occur over multiple years.

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Litigation Provision

In 2017, the Company incurred a $11 million litigation provision related to the issuance of a verdict in a German patent litigation case. In addition, the Company recorded $4 million of litigation settlement provisions and related costs in both 2016 and 2015.

Interest Expense, Net

The decreases in net interest expense in 2017 and 2016 were primarily attributable to higher income earned on increased cash, cash equivalents and investment balances.

Provision for Income Taxes

The four principal jurisdictions in which the Company manufactures are the U.S., Ireland, the U.K. and Singapore, where the marginal effective tax rates were approximately 37.5%, 12.5%, 19.25% and 0%, respectively, as of December 31, 2017. The Company has a contractual tax rate in Singapore of 0% on qualifying activities in Singapore through March 2021, based upon the achievement of certain contractual milestones, which the Company expects to continue to meet. The current statutory tax rate in Singapore is 17%. The effect of applying the contractual tax rate rather than the statutory tax rate to income from qualifying activities in Singapore increased the Company’s net income in 2017, 2016 and 2015 by $25 million, $23 million and $20 million, respectively and increased the Company’s net income per diluted share by $0.31, $0.29 and $0.25, respectively.

The Company’s effective tax rate is influenced by many significant factors, including, but not limited to, the wide range of income tax rates in jurisdictions in which the Company operates; sales volumes and profit levels in each tax jurisdiction; changes in tax laws, tax rates and policies; the outcome of various ongoing tax audit examinations; and the impact of foreign currency transactions and translation. As a result of variability in these factors, the Company’s effective tax rates in the future may not be similar to the effective tax rates for the current or prior years.

The Company’s effective tax rates were 96.8%, 13.1% and 13.4% in 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively. The provision for income taxes for 2017 includes a $550 million estimate for the impact of the enactment of the 2017 Tax Act. Excluding the $550 million income tax expense for the 2017 Tax Act, the effective tax rate in 2017 would have been 11.0% and this effective income tax rate includes a $20 million or (3.1 percentage point) reduction in the income tax expense as a result of the adoption of new accounting guidance related to stock-based compensation. See Note 2 for further information regarding the adoption of this standard.

The 2017 Tax Act changed the U.S. tax system to a territorial system, including base broadening measures requiring the taxation of the Company’s historical unremitted foreign earnings through a deemed repatriation, which resulted in a $550 million income tax provision that reduced net income per share by $6.82 for the twelve months ended December 31, 2017, as well as eliminating or reducing certain domestic deductions and credits and limiting the deductibility of interest expense and executive compensation. The $550 million income tax provision primarily consists of an estimated Transition Tax of $490 million, as well as estimated income tax provisions for state and withholding taxes of $40 million and a $20 million provision associated with the remeasurement of the Company’s deferred tax assets and liabilities from 35% to the new U.S. corporate income tax rate of 21%. The Transition Tax will be paid over an eight-year period, starting in 2018, and will not accrue interest. The final impact of the 2017 Tax Act may differ from these estimates due to, among other things, changes in interpretations, analysis and assumptions made by the Company, additional guidance that may be issued by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, and tax planning actions that the Company may undertake.

The income tax provision for 2016 included a $3 million tax benefit related to a release of a valuation allowance on certain net operating loss carryforwards. In 2015, the income tax provision included a $3 million tax benefit related to the completion of tax audit examinations. The remaining differences between effective tax rates can primarily be attributed to differences in the proportionate amounts of pre-tax income recognized in jurisdictions with different effective tax rates.

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Liquidity and Capital Resources

Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (in thousands):

Cash Flow from Operating Activities

Net cash provided by operating activities was $698 million, $643 million and $573 million in 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively. The changes within net cash provided by operating activities include the following significant changes in the sources and uses of net cash provided by operating activities, aside from the changes in net income:

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Cash Used in Investing Activities

Net cash used in investing activities totaled $536 million, $488 million and $400 million in 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively. Additions to fixed assets and capitalized software were $85 million, $95 million and $100 million in 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively. In February 2018, the Company’s Board of Directors approved expanding its chemistry synthesis operations. The Company anticipates spending an estimated $215 million to build and equip this new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility, which will be paid for with existing cash and investments. The Company does not expect to issue any debt in relation to this expansion.

During 2017, 2016 and 2015, the Company purchased $3.0 billion, $2.4 billion and $2.0 billion of investments, respectively, while $2.5 billion, $2.0 billion and $1.7 billion of investments matured, respectively.

During 2017, the Company made a $7 million payment for an investment in a developer of analytical system solutions used to make measurements, predict stability and accelerate product discovery in the routine analytic, process monitoring and quality control release processes for life science and biopharmaceutical markets. During 2017 and 2015, the Company made payments of $5 million and $3 million, respectively, to acquire and license intellectual property relating to mass spectrometry technologies yet to be commercialized. Business acquisitions, net of cash acquired, were $6 million and $23 million during 2016 and 2015, respectively. There were no business acquisitions in 2017. In 2016, the Company sold an equity investment for $4 million and, in 2015, the Company received $5 million cash from the sale of a building in the U.K.

Cash Used in Financing Activities

In November 2017, the Company entered into the 2017 Credit Agreement, which provides for a $1.5 billion revolving facility and a $300 million term loan. The revolving facility and term loan both mature on November 30, 2022 and require no scheduled prepayments before that date. The Company used $1.3 billion of the proceeds from the 2017 Credit Agreement to repay the outstanding amounts under the 2013 Credit Agreement, which was terminated early without penalty. The Company plans to use future proceeds from the revolving facility for general corporate purposes.

The interest rates applicable to the 2017 Credit Agreement are, at the Company’s option, equal to either the alternate base rate (which is a rate per annum equal to the greatest of (a) the prime rate in effect on such day, (b) the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Rate on such day plus 1/2 of 1% per annum and (c) the adjusted LIBO rate on such day (or if such day is not a business day, the immediately preceding business day) for a deposit in U.S. dollars with a maturity of one month plus 1% per annum) or the applicable 1, 2, 3 or 6 month adjusted LIBO rate or EURIBO rate for Euro-denominated loans, in each case, plus an interest rate margin based upon the Company’s leverage ratio, which can range between 0 and 12.5 basis points for alternate base rate loans and between 80 and 112.5 basis points for LIBO rate or EURIBO rate loans. The facility fee on the 2017 Credit Agreement ranges between 7.5 and 25 basis points per annum, based on the leverage ratio, of the amount of the revolving facility commitments and the outstanding term loan. The 2017 Credit Agreement requires that the Company comply with an interest coverage ratio test of not less than 3.50:1 as of the end of any fiscal quarter for any period of four consecutive fiscal quarters and a leverage ratio test of not more than 3.50:1 as of the end of any fiscal quarter. In addition, the 2017 Credit Agreement includes negative covenants, affirmative covenants, representations and warranties and events of default that are customary for investment grade credit facilities.

Interest on the Company’s fixed rate senior unsecured notes is payable semi-annually each year. Interest on the floating rate senior unsecured notes is payable quarterly. The Company may prepay all or some of the senior unsecured notes at any time in an amount not less than 10% of the aggregate principal amount outstanding, plus the applicable make-whole amount or prepayment premium for Series H and J senior unsecured notes. In the event of a change in control of the Company (as defined in the note purchase agreement), the Company may be required to prepay the senior unsecured notes at a price equal to 100% of the principal amount thereof, plus

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accrued and unpaid interest. These senior unsecured notes require that the Company comply with an interest coverage ratio test of not less than 3.50:1 for any period of four consecutive fiscal quarters and a leverage ratio test of not more than 3.50:1 as of the end of any fiscal quarter. In addition, these senior unsecured notes include customary negative covenants, affirmative covenants, representations and warranties and events of default.

During 2017, 2016 and 2015, the Company’s net debt borrowings increased by $170 million, $160 million and $205 million, respectively. As of December 31, 2017, the Company had a total of $2 billion in outstanding debt, which consisted of $700 million in outstanding senior unsecured notes, $300 million borrowed under a term loan and $1 billion borrowed under a revolving credit facility, with both the term loan and revolving credit facilities under the 2017 Credit Agreement. As of December 31, 2017, the Company had a total amount available to borrow under the 2017 Credit Agreement of $498 million after outstanding letters of credit. As of December 31, 2017, the Company was in compliance with all debt covenants.

In May 2017, the Company’s Board of Directors authorized the Company to repurchase up to $1 billion of its outstanding common stock over a three-year period. During 2017, 2016 and 2015, the Company repurchased 1.8 million, 2.3 million and 2.6 million shares of the Company’s outstanding common stock at a cost of $323 million, $318 million and $327 million, respectively, under the May 2017 authorization and other previously announced programs. As of 2017, the Company had purchased an aggregate of 5.5 million shares at a cost of $750 million under the May 2014 authorization, which is now completed. At December 31, 2017, the Company had a total of $800 million in remaining authorized capacity for future repurchases under the May 2017 authorization. In addition, the Company repurchased $10 million, $8 million and $7 million of common stock related to the vesting of restricted stock units during the years ended December 31, 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively. As a result of the deemed repatriation of the Company’s offshore cash from the 2017 Tax Act, the Company currently anticipates deploying approximately $1 billion of cash to reduce debt and repurchase the Company’s common stock shares on the open market during 2018.

The Company received $98 million, $62 million and $52 million of proceeds from the exercise of stock options and the purchase of shares pursuant to the Company’s employee stock purchase plan in 2017, 2016 and 2015, respectively.

The Company had cash, cash equivalents and investments of $3,394 million as of December 31, 2017. The majority of the Company’s cash, cash equivalents and investments are generated from foreign operations, with $3,326 million held by foreign subsidiaries at December 31, 2017, of which $304 million was held in currencies other than U.S. dollars. The Company believes it has sufficient levels of cash flow and access to its existing cash, cash equivalents and investments to fund operations and capital expenditures, service debt interest, finance potential acquisitions and continue the authorized stock repurchase program in the U.S. These cash requirements are managed by the Company’s cash flow from operations, its existing cash, cash equivalents and investments, and the use of the Company’s revolving credit facility.

Management believes, as of the date of this report, that its financial position, along with expected future cash flows from earnings based on historical trends and the ability to raise funds from external sources and the borrowing capacity from existing, committed credit facilities, will be sufficient to service debt and fund working capital and capital spending requirements, authorized share repurchase amounts and potential acquisitions for at least the next twelve months. Other than the Company gaining tax efficient access to its offshore cash, cash equivalents and investments as a result of the 2017 Tax Act, there have been no recent significant changes to the Company’s financial position, nor are there any anticipated changes, to warrant a material adjustment related to indefinitely reinvested foreign earnings.

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Contractual Obligations and Commercial Commitments

The following is a summary of the Company’s known contractual obligations as of December 31, 2017 (in thousands):