Intuitive Surgical (NYSE:ISRG) stock rose nearly 10% today, a day after the company reported first-quarter results that handily beat Wall Street expectations.
Baird upgraded Intuitive’s stock rating to outperform after the news yesterday evening, according to media reports.
The Sunnyvale, Calif.–based robotic surgery company reported profits of $435.2 million, or $3.51 per share, on sales of nearly $1.3 billion for the three months ended March 31, 2021, for a bottom-line gain of 37.6% on sales growth of 17.5% compared with Q1 2020.
Adjusted to exclude one-time items, earnings per share were $3.52, 11¢ ahead of The Street, where analysts were looking for EPS of $3.63 on sales of $1.11 billion.
Compared with Q1 2020, systems revenue grew 30%. Instruments and accessories revenue was up 14%.
Intuitive CEO Gary Guthart cautioned during the company’s earnings call that recovery of business has been uneven: “Our experience shows that our business rebounds as COVID drops.” Still, Guthart saw Q1 as a “step in the right direction.”
“In the quarter, we saw a healthy recovery of surgery and use of our products. Strong capital placements continued in Q1 2021 and utilization of installed systems increased through the quarter, indicating a need by our customers to return to surgery,” Guthart said.
Intuitive is in the early stages of commercializing two new platforms — the single-port surgery da Vinci SP platform and Ion flexible robotics platform, according to Guthart. The company is also advancing digital capabilities such as the My Intuitive mobile app for surgeons and telepresence features that enable people to remotely learn from da Vinci procedures. “Our teams are making good progress in all three areas,” he said.
Investors reacted by sending ISRG shares up nearly 10% to $891.38 apiece by the close of trading today. MassDevice’s MedTech 100 Index — which includes stocks of the world’s largest medical device companies — is up nearly 2%.
This story originally ran on April 20, 2021. Updated with news about rating upgrade, quotes from earnings call, lastest stock price.