This article has been updated to reflect changes in share price.
Intuitive Surgical
(NSDQ:ISRG) shares dropped about 4% this morning despite the robot-assisted surgery pioneer’s reported fourth-quarter results that beat expectations for sales and earnings.
Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Intuitive reported profits of $358 million or $2.99 per share, on sales of $1.28 billion for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2019, marking a 22.3% bottom-line gain on sales growth of 22.1% compared with Q3 2018.
Adjusted to exclude one-time items, earnings per share were $3.48, 10¢ above the consensus on Wall Street, where analysts were looking for sales of $1.24 billion.
The company said it shipped 336 da Vinci Surgical Systems during the quarter, an increase of 16% compared with 290 in the Q4 2018. Although analysts continue to support Intuitive, investors were apparently disappointed in the company’s conservative outlook for 2020. In an after-hours earning call transcribed by SeekingAlpha on Thursday, the company reiterated its full-year procedure growth outlook of 13% to 16%.
In Q4 2019, procedure grew by about 19% over the same quarter of 2018.
ISRG shares were down nearly -3.6% to $592.98 in early-afternoon trading.
