Is This the End of Robotic Surgery?

By Matt Thalman – Aug 18, 2013 at 5:00PM

NASDAQ: ISRG

Intuitive Surgical

Market Cap

$133B

Today's Change

(-0.45%) -$1.67

Current Price

$373.34

Price as of April 25, 2024, 3:59 p.m. ET

A brief look at the robotic surgery industry and how two of the big companies producing surgical robots may fare in the future.

In the following video, Fool contributor Matt Thalman discuss how the robotic surgery industry is changing in front of investors' eyes. MAKO Surgical (MAKO.DL) and Intuitive Surgical (ISRG -0.45%) are the two big players in this market and have seen their share prices fall in the past few months as sales have slowed down. At least for Intuitive Surgical, this comes at a time when the company is attempting to transition from relying on selling razors to selling more blades, with demand from hospitals slowing down as many can't justify spending the money on the da Vinci machine today.

As we've seen with other industries, selling the razor is great, but over the course of years and years, the real money comes from selling the blades.

Check out the video for more information.

Fool contributor Matt Thalman owns shares of Intuitive Surgical. Check back Monday through Friday as Matt explains what caused the Dow's winners and losers of the day, and every Saturday for a weekly recap. Follow Matt on Twitter: @mthalman5513.

The Motley Fool recommends Intuitive Surgical and MAKO Surgical and owns shares of Intuitive Surgical. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.