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Why Does Intuitive Surgical Score as a Strong Buy Right Now

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Intuitive Surgical Inc. (ISRG - Free Report) , the provider of the famous da Vinci surgical system is on a healthy growth trajectory of late. Over the last three months, the stock was trading consistently ahead of the S&P 500 Index. It has rallied 20.9% in this period, compared with the market’s mere 2.7% gain. The stock has a market cap of $33.1 billion.

Also over this period, the company’s share price has outperformed the Zacks categorized Medical - Instruments sub-industry’s gain of nearly 8%.

With solid growth prospects, this Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stock is an attractive pick at present. Let’s find out whether the recent positive trend is a sustainable one.

A stellar first-quarter 2017 result was a major market sentiment booster, thanks to the rising customer adoption of procedures and growth in system placements.

Also, the company gained significantly on the certifying CE Mark approval for da Vinci X in Europe. The stock has further received a boost on the recent U.S. FDA approval of the same.

Notably, Intuitive Surgical has been riding high on solid prospects on its da Vinci platform. In this regard, da Vinci procedure volumes grew worldwide approximately 18% year over year in the first quarter of 2017. Reasons cited for this uptrend are stellar performances in the U.S. general surgery and worldwide urologic procedures.

The company has shipped 133 da Vinci surgical systems, up from 110 in the first quarter of 2016.

Taking the stock’s stable performance of into consideration, the Intuitive Surgical is expected to scale higher in the coming quarters. The company’s positive long-term growth of 9.4% also holds promise.

The company’s estimate revision trend for the current year has been favorable. In the past 60 days, three analysts moved north, with one movement in the opposite direction. The magnitude of estimate revision increased around 2.3% to $20.16 per share, over the same time frame.

However, downsides may come from the fact that the da Vinci Surgical System has a long sale and purchase order cycle as it is a major capital investment for hospitals that requires approval of the senior management at purchasing institutions.

The above time lag may act against the company’s interests. Also the stock’s valuation looks stretched at this moment.

Key Picks

Other top-ranked medical stocks are Align Technology, Inc. (ALGN - Free Report) , Inogen, Inc. (INGN - Free Report) and Accelerate Diagnostics, Inc. (AXDX - Free Report) . Notably, Align Technology and Inogen sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), while Accelerate Diagnostics carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Align Technology has an expected long-term adjusted earnings growth of almost 24.1%. The stock has roughly added 30.6% over the last three months.

Inogen has a long-term expected earnings growth rate of 17.5%. The stock has a solid one-year return of around 90.2%.

Accelerate Diagnostics has an expected long-term adjusted earnings growth of 30%. The stock has supplemented roughly 14.2% over the last three months.

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