Wall Street Zen Downgrades Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ:ISRG) to Hold

Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ:ISRG) was downgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued on Friday.

Several other research analysts also recently commented on the stock. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Intuitive Surgical from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 20th. Erste Group Bank reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Intuitive Surgical in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. Royal Bank Of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $615.00 target price on shares of Intuitive Surgical in a research note on Tuesday, August 19th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Intuitive Surgical from $547.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 23rd. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of Intuitive Surgical from $470.00 to $550.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 8th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $595.95.

Intuitive Surgical Price Performance

Shares of ISRG stock opened at $441.12 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $469.43 and a 200-day moving average of $501.49. Intuitive Surgical has a one year low of $425.00 and a one year high of $616.00. The company has a market cap of $158.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 61.52, a P/E/G ratio of 4.62 and a beta of 1.61.

Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ:ISRG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 22nd. The medical equipment provider reported $2.19 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.93 by $0.26. Intuitive Surgical had a net margin of 28.51% and a return on equity of 14.56%. The firm had revenue of $2.44 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.35 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.78 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 21.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Intuitive Surgical will post 6.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Intuitive Surgical news, insider Gary S. Guthart sold 29,360 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $472.49, for a total value of $13,872,306.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 19,827 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,368,059.23. The trade was a 59.69% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Amy L. Ladd sold 336 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $470.11, for a total transaction of $157,956.96. Following the sale, the director directly owned 1,074 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $504,898.14. The trade was a 23.83% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 45,224 shares of company stock valued at $21,716,492. 0.70% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Intuitive Surgical

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Intuitive Surgical in the second quarter valued at approximately $2,569,260,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in Intuitive Surgical in the first quarter valued at approximately $1,715,899,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in Intuitive Surgical by 54,010.7% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,028,576 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock valued at $14,999,630,000 after acquiring an additional 3,022,979 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Intuitive Surgical by 2.1% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 33,335,833 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock valued at $18,115,025,000 after acquiring an additional 670,302 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Intuitive Surgical by 26.1% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,819,666 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,396,496,000 after acquiring an additional 584,375 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.64% of the company’s stock.

About Intuitive Surgical

Intuitive Surgical, Inc develops, manufactures, and markets products that enable physicians and healthcare providers to enhance the quality of and access to minimally invasive care in the United States and internationally. The company offers the da Vinci Surgical System that enables complex surgery using a minimally invasive approach; and Ion endoluminal system, which extends its commercial offerings beyond surgery into diagnostic procedures enabling minimally invasive biopsies in the lung.