Intuitive Surgical (NSDQ:ISRG) topped Wall Street’s expectations for its 4th-quarter sales, sending share prices up today ahead of CEO Gary Guthart’s presentation at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare conference.
Intuitive said it expects to post 4th-quarter sales of roughly $576 million for the 3 months ended Dec. 31, 2013, down about 5% compared with Q4 2012; analysts on The Street were looking for revenues of $548.6 million. Full-year sales are pegged at about $2.27 billion, up 4% compared with 2012 and ahead of the consensus $2.24 billion forecast. The full-year sales number was in line with Intuitive’s own guidance for sales growth in the lower half of the 0%-7% range.
The news sent ISRG shares up 9.2% to $429.33 apiece as of about 11 a.m. today.
Intuitive also reported lower sales of its flagship da Vinci surgical robot, saying it sold 138 da Vinci systems during the 4th quarter, down from 175 during the same period in 2012. Sales of the device were off by 23% to $205 million, according to a press release. Intuitive sold 546 systems during 2013, compared with 620 systems during 2012, reporting that sales were down 11% to $835 million.
"Lower 4th-quarter and full-year 2013 systems sales were driven by lower U.S. sales reflecting moderating procedure growth in benign gynecology, combined with changing hospital capital spending priorities associated with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, partially offset by higher international systems sales, led by higher da Vinci system sales in Japan," according to the release.
