What happened

Shares of robotic surgery start-up and would-be Intuitive Surgical replacement Vicarious Surgical (RBOT 2.66%) soared 10.8% through 11:20 a.m. ET Tuesday after reporting slightly better earnings -- or more precisely, slightly fewer losses -- than Wall Street had predicted for its fiscal Q4 2022 that just ended.

Heading into the quarter, analysts had forecast that Vicarious Surgical would lose $0.17 per share, adjusted, in Q4. Last night, the company announced that its losses were in fact only $0.16 per share -- also adjusted for one-time items.  

So what

What about sales, you ask? Funny question. As it turns out, Vicarious Surgical doesn't actually have any sales -- because it doesn't actually have a product to sell just yet, either. Accordingly, no analysts predicted a revenue number for Vicarious -- and the company reported zero revenue both for the quarter and for the year as well.  

Instead of revenue, Vicarious says its goal in 2022 was just to burn no more than $67 million in cash. It came close to that goal, burning through only $67.3 million in negative free cash flow for the year. Still, the expenses incurred were pretty steep, with general and administrative, sales and marketing, and research and development spending all doubling year over year.

Adjusted net losses came to $0.65 for the year, up 62.5%, but the company still managed to report earnings as calculated according to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) that were positive $0.04 per share.

Now what

The other good news is that Vicarious Surgical cut its spending pretty dramatically in the year's final quarter.

Total Q4 2022 operating expenses grew only 16% versus last year's Q4 -- quite a cutback from 110% growth for the year -- and Vicarious actually spent a little less money on general and administrative expenses in Q4 2022 than it did in Q4 2021. Accordingly, GAAP net losses for the quarter were cut in half, to just $0.09 per share.

Looking ahead, Vicarious is planning to keep a tight rein on spending. While management anticipates burning between $55 million and $65 million this year, that will be less than 2022's cash burn. And with more than $116 million in the bank, it appears Vicarious still has enough cash to keep the doors open and the lights on for another couple of years as it works to bring its first product to market.