The analytic expressions for equation of state and thermodynamic properties have been derived for the exp-6 fluids, by using the Ross variational perturbation theory and the analytic Percus-Yevick (PY) expression of radial distribution function of hard spheres. It is shown that the variational procedure is absolutely convergent and the calculations are fast. The comparison of the numerical results with the computer simulations shows that the precision of the analytic Ross theory is equivalent to the non-analytic modified Weeks-Chandler-Anderson (mWCA) theory, and is slightly better than the complicated optimized reference hypernetted chain (RHNC) theory. (c) 2007 Published by Elsevier B.V.