Intuitive Surgical officially announced first-quarter 2014 earnings last night and hosted a conference call with analysts. That's where things got ugly and set the stock off 11% during trading today.
Intuitive's management had already leaked the results and they weren't pretty. A 24% decline in revenue, led by a collapse of system sales, sliced net income in half versus a year ago. However, another red flag was hoisted during a call -- procedure growth, which was 7% for the quarter, itself already worse than last year, may worsen as 2014 continues.
However, another announcement coincided with all of this bad news. Its importance won't be felt immediately, but Intuitive could have a catalyst to turn around its troubling performance and ignite next-gen da Vinci sales. Watch as Motley Fool health-care analyst David Williamson discusses Intuitive's recent quarter and what this important new catalyst could mean for investors.
