By Senad Karaahmetovic
Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ:ISRG) reported strong growth in worldwide procedures for the first quarter to send its shares higher in pre-market Wednesday.
ISRG posted a Q1 EPS of $1.23 on revenue of $1.7 billion to top the analyst estimate for EPS of $1.19 on sales of $1.59B. Revenue soared by 14% year-over-year, fueled by a 22% surge in Instruments and Accessories revenue.
The biggest takeaway from the Q1 earnings report is that worldwide procedures grew 26%, compared to the 19% reported for the same period last year. Analysts were expecting 15% growth.
"Our core business was lifted by positive surgical trends and continued interest in robotic-assisted surgery when compared with other surgical approaches," said Gary Guthart, Intuitive CEO. "We continue our focus on increased adoption, pursuit of expanded indications and product launches, excellence in supply and product quality, and increased productivity as we scale our business."
ISRG said the Da Vinci Surgical System installed base rose 12% YoY to 7,779 systems.
The company raised its full-year procedure outlook to +18-21%.
Mizuho analysts hiked the price target to $300 per share on procedure growth. However, he remains Neutral and advised the broker's clients to wait for a better entry.
Stifel analysts also hiked the price target after the company reported "best procedure growth in a decade."
"All these positive growth drivers underpin our early 1Q23 MedTech earnings bottom line: Both the JNJ and ISRG earnings calls seemed to indicate that the macro operating environment is considerably improving, and the companies most leveraged for recovery, like Intuitive, are likely to see the most upside," the analysts said in a note.