Shareholders of Intuitive Surgical (ISRG 0.71%) had a rough week, with a weak first quarter preliminary results release driving shares lower. The numbers themselves were pretty ugly: A 24% decline in overall revenue, driven largely by a 59% decline in da Vinci surgical system sales.
Intuitive Surgical's management blamed hospital capital expenditure changes driven by the Affordable Care Act (also known as Obamacare) and lower procedure volumes, but even so, these were disappointing numbers for a stock that has more than tripled in the past five years.
The big question now is whether the long-term outlook for the company remains unchanged. In this video from Friday's Market Checkup, Motley Fool health care analysts David Williamson and Michael Douglass sift through the numbers and consider the major factors affecting Intuitive Surgical's performance moving forward.
