Investors are on the edge of their collective seats, hoping that Intuitive Surgical (Nasdaq: ISRG) will top analyst expectations for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Tuesday, October 18. Intuitive Surgical designs and manufactures da Vinci Surgical Systems, EndoWrist instruments and other surgical accessories.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Intuitive Surgical with nine of 14 analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like Intuitive Surgical as much as competitor Stryker overall. Twenty-one out of 27 analysts rate Stryker a buy compared to five of 14 for Intuitive Surgical. While analysts still rate the stock a Hold, they are a little more optimistic about it compared to three months ago.
  • Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $417.8 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 21.3% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $2.76 per share. Estimates range from $2.67 to $2.89.

What our community says:
 CAPS All Stars are solidly behind the stock with 96.9% assigning it an "outperform" rating. The community at large agrees with the All Stars with 95.3% giving it a rating of "outperform." Fools have embraced Intuitive Surgical and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 1,432 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, Intuitive Surgical's CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:
 Intuitive Surgical's profit has risen year over year by an average of 36.2% over the past five quarters.

Now let's look at how efficient management is at running the business. Traditionally, margins represent the efficiency with which companies capture portions of sales dollars. The following table shows gross, operating, and net margins over the past four quarters.

Quarter

Q2

Q1

Q4

Q3

Gross Margin

72%

71.8%

72.5%

72.8%

Operating Margin

39.5%

38.2%

39.5%

38.4%

Net Margin

27.6%

26.8%

31.1%

25.1%

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