Intuitive Surgical Cuts a Colossal Check: Fool by Numbers

14 Recommendations

On Oct. 18, robotic surgery pioneer Intuitive Surgical (Nasdaq: ISRG) released third-quarter earnings for the period ended Sept. 30, 2007.

  • The company sold 63 new robotic surgery systems during the quarter, including 17 outside the country. That's up from 46 systems sold a year ago, bringing the installed base up to 719 units across the globe.
  • Intuitive is rapidly building a strong balance sheet, with no debt to speak of and a hefty cash position. Inventories are growing, but not nearly as fast as sales -- demand for its machines appears higher than the available supply.
  • Intuitive Surgical is one of the top performers on our Motley Fool Rule Breakers scorecard, right next to other market thumpers like online jeweler Blue Nile (Nasdaq: NILE) and OLED pioneer Universal Display (Nasdaq: PANL). See the rest of the gang with a free 30-day trial pass to our early adopter money maker.

(Figures in thousands, except per-share data)

Income statement highlights

Q3 2007

Q3 2006

Change

Sales

$156,904

$95,832

63.7%

Net Profit

$40,919

$17,263

137%

Diluted EPS

$1.04

$0.45

131.1%

Diluted Shares

39,271

38,184

2.8%

Get back to basics with the income statement.

Margin checkup

Q3 2007

Q3 2006

Change*

Gross Margin

69.1%

65.7%

3.5

Operating Margin

34.4%

27.5%

6.9

Net Margin

26.1%

18%

8.1

*Expressed in percentage points.

Margins are the earnings engine.

Balance sheet highlights

Assets

Q3 2007

Q3 2006

Change

Cash + ST Invest.

$533,489

$292,297

82.5%

Accounts Rec.

$120,456

$71,679

68%

Inventory

$26,773

$22,330

19.9%

Liabilities

Q3 2007

Q3 2006

Change

Accounts Payable & Accrued Liabilities

$63,525

$36,230

75.3%

The balance sheet reflects the company's health.

Cash flow highlights
Free cash flow is a Fool's best friend. The company didn't let it out to play today, but Intuitive's full 10-Q statement tends to follow the earnings report within days. Stay tuned.

Related Foolishness:

What do the unfolding financial crisis and ongoing market volatility mean for your money? The Fool's here with answers. Get the best of our daily commentary and analysis in your inbox simply by entering your email address in the box below.

Comments from our Foolish Readers

Help us keep this a respectfully Foolish area! This is a place for our readers to discuss, debate, and learn more about the Foolish investing topic you read about above. Help us keep it clean and safe. If you believe a comment is abusive or otherwise violates our Fool's Rules, please report it via the Report this Comment Report this Comment icon found on every comment.

Be the first one to comment on this article.

Report This Comment

Use this area to report a comment that you believe is in violation of the community guidelines. Our team will review the entry and take any appropriate action.

Sending report...

Compare Brokers

TD AMERITRADE
more info
ShareBuilder
more info
Power E*Trade

more info
Scottrade
more info
Fool Disclosure

DocumentId: 538851, ~/articles/articlehandler.aspx, 11/22/2008 5:33:56 PM,

Sign up for FREE Motley Fool site access!

Already registered? Login Here

It’s FREE! Enter your email address, and we’ll rush you to the article you're looking for right now.

Privacy / Legal Information

We will use your email address only to keep you informed about updates to our web site and about other products and services that we think might interest you. The Motley Fool respects your privacy. Please read our Privacy Statement

.

Related Tickers

Intuitive Surgical, Inc.

ISRG Up! $118.26 +6.52 (+5.83%) 4:00 PM
CAPS Rating:
3230 Outperforms
180 Underperforms
Rate This Stock

Major Indices

S&P 500800.03+6.32%
DJIA8,046.42+6.54%
NASD1,384.35+5.18%
Updated: 4:07:36 PM
Sponsored by:

The Motley Poll

What changes are you making to your portfolio?

Sponsored by: