(Reuters) – Intuitive Surgical beat Wall Street estimates for fourth-quarter revenue and profit on Tuesday, as a recovery in surgeries lifted demand for its robots used in minimally invasive procedures.
Medical device makers have largely noted as “temporary” the impact of powerful new weight-loss drugs such as Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound on sales of products used to perform abdomen surgeries.
Instead, many are riding a recovery in surgical procedures deferred during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Shares of California-based Intuitive rose 7.2% to $399 in extended trading.
Johnson & Johnson earlier on Tuesday said it expected medtech-related procedures to remain elevated in 2024. Analysts expect the industry bellwether’s performance to “bode well” for the broader medical device market.
Intuitive reported fourth-quarter sales of $1.93 billion, above analysts’ average estimate of $1.89 billion, according to LSEG data.
Sales in its instruments and accessories unit, which accounts for a major chunk of revenue, rose 22% year-over-year to $1.14 billion, in line with estimates.
On an adjusted basis, Intuitive earned $1.60 per share, topping estimate of $1.48.
In October, Intuitive had flagged sagging demand for its robots used in bariatric surgeries even as it signaled potential benefits from obese patients becoming eligible for other types of procedures.
The California-based company earlier this month forecast procedures using its da Vinci surgical robot to grow between 13% and 16% in 2024. That compared with an about 22% year-over-year growth in 2023, as per preliminary data from the company.
(Reporting by Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)
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