Why Waters Stock Is Skyrocketing 12.9% Today

Shares of Waters Corp. (NYSE: WAT) were surging 12.9% at 1:45 p.m. EDT on Wednesday after the company reported preliminary second-quarter revenue that was higher than expected, and news that it's hired a new CEO. In Q1, a 45% drop in China revenue because of COVID-19 restrictions caused global sales to fall 9.5% year over year to $465 million. Although sales remained weak in the second quarter because of European Union and United States COVID-19 shutdowns, the decline in demand was less than industry watchers expected.