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Why Is Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) Up 4.6% Since the Last Earnings Report?

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It has been about a month since the last earnings report for Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (ISRG - Free Report) . Shares have added about 4.6% in that time frame, outperforming the market.

Will the recent positive trend continue leading up to the stock's next earnings release, or is it due for a pullback? Before we dive into how investors and analysts have reacted as of late, let's take a quick look at the most recent earnings report in order to get a better handle on the important drivers.

Intuitive Surgical (ISRG - Free Report) Beats on Q4 Earnings & Revenues

Intuitive Surgical Inc. (ISRG - Free Report) posted adjusted earnings of $5.30 per share in the fourth quarter of 2016, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate by four cents, courtesy of stellar revenue growth. Also, the figure improved 2.3% on a year-over-year basis.

Revenues increased 11.9% year over year to $756.9 million, driven by higher procedural volume and growth across all business segments. Revenues were above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $747 million as well. Recurring revenues totaled $521 million, representing almost 69% of the quarter’s top line.

Quarter Highlights

Intuitive Surgical’s performance in the quarter was solid with rising customer adoption of procedures and growth in system placements.

Worldwide da Vinci procedure volumes grew approximately 15% year over year, thanks to stellar performances in U.S. general surgery and worldwide urologic procedures. Notably, the company shipped 163 da Vinci surgical systems, up from 158 in the fourth quarter of 2015.

In the U.S., increasing adoption of general surgery procedures, stupendous growth in urology procedures worldwide, and modest growth in the urology and gynecology drove procedural volumes in the quarter. Additionally, growth in the segments of ventral and inguinal hernia repair, colon resection and lung resection was also encouraging.

Revenue Details

Instruments and Accessories revenues grew 18.6% to $386.3 million in the quarter driven by a higher number of procedures and increased sales in stapling and vessel sealing products. Revenues realized per procedure were approximately $1,900 compared with $1,840 in the year-ago quarter.

System sales increased 2.3% to $235.9 million driven by higher revenues from operating lease activities. Intuitive Surgical placed 163 systems in the quarter, up from 158 in the year-ago quarter. Management at Intuitive Surgical noted that 13 systems were placed under operating lease transactions compared with 16 systems in the year-ago quarter. At the end of the quarter, there were 79 systems in the field under operating leases.

Coming to Service, the company registered revenues of $134.7 million, up 12.1% on a year-over-year basis on growth in the installed base of da Vinci systems.

Outside the U.S., the company placed 63 systems compared with 75 in the year-ago quarter and 49 in the sequential quarter. The company noted that 26 were installed in Europe, 3 in China, 15 in Japan and 19 in other international markets.

Balance Sheet

Intuitive Surgical had cash, cash equivalents and investments of $4.8 billion as of Dec 31, 2016. The company aims to use this cash for capital allocation programs. The company also entered into an accelerated share repurchase program with The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (GS). Per the agreement, Intuitive Surgical will repurchase $2.0 billion of its common stock from Goldman. Notably, Goldman is expected to make an initial delivery of approximately 2.4 million shares of Intuitive's common stock by approximately Jan 27, 2017.

How Have Estimates Been Moving Since Then?

Analysts were quiet during the last two month period as none of them issued any earnings estimate revisions.

VGM Scores

At this time, Intuitive Surgical's stock has a nice Growth Score of 'B', though it is lagging a lot on the momentum front with an 'D'. Charting a similar path, the stock was allocated a grade of 'D' on the value side, putting it in the bottom 40% for this investment strategy.

Overall, the stock has an aggregate VGM Score of 'D'. If you aren't focused on one strategy, this score is the one you should be interested in.

The company's stock is suitable solely for growth based on our styles scores.

Outlook

The stock has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). We are expecting an inline return from the stock in the next few months.


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