Intuitive Surgical (Nasdaq:ISRG) reported first-quarter earnings results that came in ahead of the consensus Wall Street forecast.
The day after the after-market-close earnings release, shares of ISRG were down up more than 6% to $482.41 apiece near the close of trading. The S&P 500 was mostly unchanged.
The Sunnyvale, California–based surgical robotics leader reported profits of $821.5 million. That equals $2.28 per share on sales of $2.8 billion for the three months ended March 31, 2026.
Intuitive recorded a 17.6% bottom-line gain on a 23% sales increase.
Adjusted to exclude one-time items, earnings per share came in at $2.50. That landed 39¢ ahead of expectations on Wall Street. Sales also topped estimates, as experts projected $2.62 billion in revenue.
Highlights in the quarter included worldwide procedure growth of approximately 17% compared to the first quarter of 2025. Intuitive’s leading da Vinci surgical robotic system recorded 16% procedure growth, while the Ion endoluminal system delivered 39% growth.
Read more about Intuitive and the surgical robotics industry by downloading our free MassDevice Surgical Robotics Special Report.
The company reported 431 da Vinci placements, compared with 367 in the first quarter of 2025. That included 232 da Vinci 5 systems, compared with 147 in the first quarter of 2025. Intuitive placed 52 Ion systems, compared to 49 in the same period the year prior.
Intuitive’s da Vinci install base increased to 11,395 as of March 31, 2026, marking a 12% increase from the same date a year ago. Ion’s reach extended to 1,041 installed systems, a 22% rise from a year ago.
For the year ahead, Intuitive expects worldwide da Vinci procedure growth of between 13.5% and 15.5%. It anticipates its non-GAAP gross profit margin to land within a range of 67.5% and 68.5% of revenue in 2026. That range includes an estimated 1% revenue impact from tariffs. Additionally, Intuitive anticipates non-GAAP operating expense growth of 11% to 14% in 2026.
“We are pleased with company performance this quarter, which was marked by expanded adoption of our da Vinci, Ion, and digital platforms,” said Dave Rosa, Intuitive CEO. “We remain deeply committed to supporting customers globally in their pursuit of the quintuple aim: achieving better patient outcomes, improving patient and care team experiences, lowering the total cost to treat, and expanding access to high quality, minimally invasive care.”
The analysts’ take
BTIG analysts Ryan Zimmerman and Iseult McMahon maintain a “Buy” rating for Intuitive following the quarterly results.
The analysts labeled the performance as “growth with guardrails.” They note that procedures and systems continue to outperform expectations despite external hurdles.
According to Zimmerman and McMahon say Intuitive continues to expand with healthy procedure growth across multiple platforms. They also point to a challenging macro environment, as new indications and incremental reimbursement in some markets offset challenges in other areas. The analysts singled out China Japan and Europe as areas impacted by compettion, pricing and capital availability.
“We think investors should recognize the metrics underpinning ISRG’s ecosystem; procedure growth, utilization, I&A per procedure as they remain a driving force to continued adoption longer-term,” the analysts wrote.
This story originally ran on April 21, 2026. Updated April 22 with next-day stock price.
