The Sunnyvale, California-based surgical robotics leader reported profits of $565 million, or $1.56 per diluted share, for the three months ended September 30, 2024, up 36% from the third quarter of 2023.
Total revenue was $2.04 billion for the quarter, up 17% from the same period a year ago.
Intuitive reported a 18% increase in sales of instruments and accessories to $1.26 billion. The company cited da Vinci procedure volume growth of 18% (up one percentage point from Q2 2024) and a 73% growth in Ion procedure volume.
Intuitive’s total installed base climbed to 9,539 systems, up 15% from a year ago. Intuitive placed 379 da Vinci surgical systems during the quarter, compared to 312 from the prior-year period and 341 in Q2 2024.
Those third-quarter system placements included 110 of Intuitive’s next-generation da Vinci 5, up from 70 in Q2 and eight in Q1.
Medical Design & Outsourcing: What Intuitive’s limited da Vinci 5 launch can teach other device developers
“Core measures of our business were healthy this quarter, and we are pleased by customer adoption of da Vinci 5,” Intuitive CEO Gary Guthart said in a news release. “We remain focused on delivering the goals we share with our customers, centered on improving patient outcomes.”
The da Vinci 5 system has been used in more than 12,000 procedures, Guthart said on today’s earnings call.
President Dave Rosa said Intuitive has completed an FDA 510(k) submission for a colorectal indication for its da Vinci SP (single-port) system. He also said Intuitive is “back-and-forth” in the regulatory process in Japan for the da Vinci 5, but did not provide more information on timing, while saying the company still expects a CE mark for da Vinci 5 near the end of 2025.
“This quarter, we began shipping our da Vinci 5 broad launch hardware and completed a software update that addresses aspects of early customer feedback,” Rosa said. “We are driving toward broad launch mid-year of 2025, when we expect to be at scale in our manufacturing operations, and we’ll have released a software update enabling the integrated hub and simulator along with various digital and imaging features.”
Related: The Intuitive da Vinci 5’s top design changes: ‘This is groundbreaking for robotic surgery’
Adjusted to exclude one-time items, earnings per share were $1.84, 21¢ ahead of The Street, where analysts were looking for EPS of $1.63 on sales of $2.0 billion.
The company narrowed its forecast for full-year procedure growth to 16-17% from the previous range of 15.5-17%.
“The low end of the range assumes further softening in bariatric procedures, along with increasing headwinds in Asia from physician strikes in Korea and from delayed tenders and domestic robotic systems in China impacting capital placements and therefore procedure growth,” Lamm said. “At the high end of the range, we assume bariatric stabilizes at current quarter growth rates and headwinds in Korea and China do not get worse. The range does not reflect significant impact to elective procedures as a result of IV shortages or other hurricane-related impacts.”
Investors reacted positively to the results, with ISRG shares up 6% in after-hours trading.
Intuitive also disclosed the departure of VP, Treasurer and Head of Investor Relations Brian King. We’ve got more on that move here.
CORRECTION: This post has been updated to correct the total number of da Vinci system placements for the third quarter of 2024.
