Intuitive Surgical is Friday's IBD Stock Of The Day as the robotic surgery pioneer rolls out its da Vinci 5 technology that lets surgeons feel, not just see, each incision. ISRG cleared an early entry on Wednesday, climbing toward a flat-base buy point.
Intuitive Surgical Stock: Da Vinci 5
The da Vinci robotic surgery system has gone through several iterations since it launched in 2000. The technology has been used for cardiac, colorectal, general, gynecological, head-and-neck and chest surgeries. The company also sells a robotic surgery system called Ion for lung biopsies.
In January, Intuitive Surgical announced that it was coming out with da Vinci 5. The new product has 10,000 times the computing power of its predecessor, the company says. Among hundreds of design changes, the most important may be "force feedback" that allows surgeons to feel what's happening at the surgical site. That enables a more delicate touch, according to surgeons interviewed for an in-depth IBD feature published May 3.
Along with first-quarter results reported on April 18, Intuitive Surgical raised its outlook to a 14%-to-17% increase in robotic procedures this year, up from its 13%-to-16% outlook earlier. In an April 19 note, William Blair analyst Brandon Vazquez touted "a solid base for 5-plus years of midteens EPS growth," keeping an outperform rating for ISRG.
Still, in a note a few days later, Vazquez said that "the burden is on Intuitive" to demonstrate the da Vinci 5's purported efficiency gains. He's looking for definitive data that could help drive adoption. The da Vinci 5 will cost about 30% more than its predecessor. A broader launch isn't expected until late 2024 or possibly 2025.
ISRG Stock Flashes Early Entry
Intuitive Surgical stock gained a fraction to close at 398.82 in Friday stock market action.
ISRG slipped nearly 2% on April 19 following earnings, but that turned out to be the low point of its seven-week flat base. After coming off its lows and consolidating near its 50-day moving average for a couple of weeks, ISRG darted up 4% to 399.39 on Wednesday.
Wednesday's move flashed an early entry as ISRG broke a trendline sloping down from the March 27 high. SwingTrader added ISRG to its portfolio that day.
Intuitive Surgical stock is still actionable from that early entry. However, the stock is only about 2% below a 403.76 flat-base buy point too.
The big move on Wednesday came as Procept BioRobotics exploded higher, then settled for a 6% gain.
Procept makes an automated robot that performs surgery to correct benign prostatic hyperplasia. That's enlargement of the prostate that is considered a precursor to prostate cancer. PRCT is part of the flagship IBD 50 list of leading growth stocks.
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