Intuitive Surgical Stock Jumps After Q1 Earnings Beat Amid da Vinci Robotic System Growth

Shares in Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) jumped more than 3% in after-hours Thursday after surpassing analysts’ earnings and revenue forecasts amid growing demand for the company’s robotics solutions used in minimally invasive medical procedures.

For the three months ending March 31, the medical devices maker posted adjusted earnings of $1.50 per share, easily topping Wall Street’s estimate of $1.41 a share. Revenue of $1.89 billion in the period grew 11% and also came in ahead of forecasts, which analysts had pegged at $1.87 billion.

The top line was boosted from the company’s instruments and accessories business, which saw sales jump 18% from a year earlier, primarily due to 16% growth in da Vinci procedure volume, 90% growth in Ion procedure volume, and favorable pricing. The medical equipment maker’s robotic da Vinci platform assists surgeons’ precision and control when performing minimally invasive surgery, and the Ion procedure is a robot-assisted biopsy..

The company highlighted its next generation da Vinci 5 robotic system, saying it received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance in March and that the company had placed eight of the systems by the end of the quarter.

Growing demand for robotics assisted procedures indicated by Intuitive Surgical on Thursday echoes remarks by rival Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) earlier this week when it reported first-quarter earnings, saying that it expects medical technology-related procedure volumes to remain elevated through 2024.

Intuitive Surgical shares moved higher for several months after the 50-day moving average crossed above the 200-day moving average in late December to generate a golden cross buy signal but have remained rangebound since early March. Amid follow-through buying after the company’s better-than-expected earnings report, investors should monitor the $403 level, a location on the chart where the stock may run into resistance from a trendline linking three recent price peaks.

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As of the date this article was written, the author does not own any of the above securities.