Robotic surgery giant Intuitive Surgical late Thursday beat Wall Street's targets for the first quarter as elective surgeries rebounded. ISRG stock rose in extended trading.
The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based medtech firm earned an adjusted $1.13 a share on sales of $1.49 billion in the March quarter. Analysts polled by FactSet expected Intuitive to earn $1.08 a share on sales of $1.43 billion. On a year-over-year basis, Intuitive earnings declined 3% while sales increased 15%.
Intuitive's business has been hampered for the past two years by the Covid-19 pandemic, which has reduced the number of elective surgeries performed.
"Customer demand for our products was healthy in the first quarter despite a challenging global environment," Chief Executive Gary Guthart said in a news release.
ISRG Stock Rises Late
In after-hours trading on the stock market today, ISRG stock climbed 2.5% near 302. During the regular session Thursday, ISRG stock fell 2.8% to close at 294.57. It was a down day overall for stocks.
Intuitive makes the da Vinci Surgical System for minimally invasive surgical procedures. It also produces the Ion Endoluminal System, a robotic-assisted platform for conducting minimally invasive biopsies in the lung.
Worldwide, da Vinci procedures grew 19% year over year in the first quarter, despite another Covid resurgence in the period.
The company placed 311 da Vinci Surgical Systems, an increase of 4% from the same quarter last year.
Intuitive Surgical ended the first quarter with an installed base of 6,920 da Vinci systems, up 13% year over year.
Intuitive Stock In Consolidation Pattern
ISRG stock has been consolidating for the past 24 weeks with a buy point of 369.79, according to IBD MarketSmith charts. The buy point is 10 cents above the stock's all-time high of 369.69, reached on Nov. 5, based on IBD trading principles.
ISRG stock ranks sixth out of 74 stocks in IBD's Medical Systems/Equipment industry group. It has a decent IBD Composite Rating of 84 out of 99, according to IBD Stock Checkup.
IBD's Composite Rating combines five separate proprietary ratings into one easy-to-use rating. The best growth stocks have a Composite Rating of 90 or better.
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