Intuitive Surgical (NSDQ:ISRG) posted second-quarter results today that beat Wall Street expectations — but the results still showed how much the COVID-19 pandemic has damaged sales for surgical robotics companies.
The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based robot-assisted surgery company — the dominant player in the space — reported profits of $68 million, or $0.57 per diluted share, on sales of $852 million for the three months ended June 20, 2020. The results represented a bottom-line decline of 79% and a top-line slide of 22% compared with Q2 2019.
Adjusted to exclude one-time items, earnings per share were 80¢, 17¢ ahead of The Street, where analysts were looking EPS of 63¢ on sales of $665 million.
“The surge of COVID in communities that represent our core markets, either from initial spread or secondary growth, is occurring now. Add to the significant anecdotal evidence of delayed diagnostic visits for non-COVID illness, and we expect that the recovery tale of surgery will be a long one, likely to last many quarters. The ultimate timing and shape of a recovery remains uncertain,” CEO Gary Guthart said during today’s earnings call, transcribed by Seeking Alpha.
Intuitive Surgical during the final months of the fourth quarter plans to introduce an “Extended Use Program” offering select Xi/X instruments possessing 12 to 18 uses compared to the current 10 use instruments. The company during the fourth quarter will also lower the price of certain other instruments that are most commonly used in lower acuity procedures.
ISRG shares remained stable in after-hours trading after the earnings announcement this evening. Company shares previously fell –1.41% to $658.15 apiece by the close of trading today. MassDevice’s MedTech 100 Index — which includes stocks of the world’s largest medical device companies — was up slightly today.