Intuitive Surgical misses Street's 4Q earnings estimate while beating on revenue

Intuitive Surgical Inc (NASDAQ:ISRG), the specialist in robotic-assisted surgery, missed Wall Street’s earnings estimates in the fourth quarter, but beat revenue forecasts as the company shipped more of its flagship da Vinci surgical systems.

In the quarter ended December 2018, the Sunnyvale, California-based company’s net income came in at $353 million, or $2.96 per share, up from the $305 million or $2.60 per share reported in the year-ago quarter. Its revenue amounted to $1.05 billion, a sharp increase from the $892 million posted in the corresponding period a year ago. The results were mixed as analysts had called for profit of $3.07 per share on revenue of $1.04 billion.

The company’s shares slipped 2.8% in after-hours trading Thursday to hit $521.

READ: ROBO Global says artificial intelligence, robotics will create ‘wave of new opportunities’ in 2019

Over the period, the company shipped 290 of its flagship da Vinci surgical systems, up from 216 devices in the fourth quarter of 2017. These systems are designed to help surgeons perform minimally invasive surgery by allowing for high-definition, 3D vision, a magnified view and robotic and computer assistance.

At the end of the quarter, Intuitive was sitting on cash, cash equivalents and investments of $4.8 billion, which represented an increase of $264 million during the quarter thanks to cash generated from operations.

Intuitive Surgical is a component of the ROBO Global Robotics & Automation Index, the world’s first benchmark index to track companies that focus on robotics, automation and artificial intelligence.

In the ROBO world, pure-play stocks — companies such as Intuitive Surgical — have a 2% weighting in the 87-strong ROBO index. The hybrids are individually at about 1%.

Contact Ellen Kelleher at [email protected]

Story by ProactiveInvestors