Intuitive Surgical’s (ISRG) stock is up more than 12% in its latest quarter after emphasizing the return of post-COVID patients to healthcare providers. Hospitals that have improved staffing levels using robot-assisted procedures for minimally invasive surgery have also helped boost results.
Citi’s Joanne Wuensch describes the quarterly as “one of those quarters where almost everything went well.” Analysts raised their price target from $305 to $317, maintaining a buy rating.
Intuitive Surgical’s first-quarter revenues of $1.7 billion were up 14% year-over-year, beating Wall Street’s consensus estimate of $1.6 billion. First quarter global procedural growth of 26% year-over-year was well above expectations of 15%.
“The return of post-pandemic patients to healthcare providers and diagnostic pipelines continues, with both an increase in patient numbers and some diagnostic pipelines surpassing pre-pandemic levels after several years of lag. We have evidence that it’s working, Intuitive Surgical said on its earnings call:
“Finally, our customers are demonstrating confidence in our product as a clinically and economically sustainable path towards minimally invasive surgery.”
According to the Sunnyvale, California-based company, US procedures are well above trend, up 26% year-over-year.
Intuitive Surgical Chief Financial Officer Jamie Samath said on the earnings call:
“We believe the return of patients to normalized healthcare routines, including improved diagnosis and staffing, has had a positive impact on procedures this quarter. It is difficult to characterize or extrapolate,” he added.
Other regional standouts include India, Spain, UK, Japan, Germany and Italy.
“2023 is off to a good start,” writes Wells Fargo equity analyst Larry Biegelsen, maintaining his Outperform rating for the stock and raising his price target to $310 from $289. there is
Intuitive Surgical has raised its 2023 surgical growth guidance from 12-16% to 18-21%.
“The 18% to 21% procedural growth range does not reflect significant material supply chain disruptions or hospital capacity constraints such as we experienced at the start of the pandemic,” Biegelsen wrote. .
Most analysts are bullish on the stock, with 15 buy ratings, 14 hold ratings, and 1 sell rating.
Ines is a Senior Business Reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on her Twitter. @ines_ferre
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