Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ: ISRG) announced its fourth quarter 2010 financial results Friday and the price of its shares shot up. It reported a 21 percent gain in revenues over the same quarter of 2009 and mentioned that this gain was largely driven by the increasing popularity of its robotic surgical system, da Vinci. The da Vinci system is an important technological advance in the medical equipment field because it allows for a less invasive procedure for surgery.
Many investors remain enthusiastic about ISRG as there are are no other companies offering a similar system. Between the system’s increasing popularity among both surgeons and patients and the company’s virtual monopoly on the space, ISRG could have some interesting times ahead. ISRG’s revenues, which reached $389 million, beat the $369.94 million average estimate of analysts. The stock rose from a closing price of $289.83 on January 20th to $326.58, an increase of more than 12 percent.
Other medical appliance and equipment providers also saw gains today including Enteromedics (NASDAQ: ETRM) which rose from $2.67 to $2.80, American Medical Alert (NASDAQ: AMAC) which rose from $5.75 to $5.97 and Vision Sciences (NASDAQ: VSCI) which rose from $1.50 to $1.55.
Covestor models with exposure in this sector include: Long-Short Equity, Healthcare, Speedboat, Management Access and Cash Flow.
*Prices and charts courtesy of Yahoo Finance.
