Funny how Rule Breakers recommendation Intuitive Surgical
Revenue jumped another 65% this quarter as the company sold an incremental 13 systems (39 systems sold this quarter versus 26 a year ago) and saw instrument/accessory revenue rise 61%. Although the comparisons move around a bit from quarter to quarter, I find it interesting that system revenue growth (69% this quarter) is still often able to surpass recurrent revenue -- suggesting to me that we're not close yet to the saturation point for these surgical robots.
As I've discussed here in prior quarters, there are numerous surgical procedures that could benefit from robotic assistance, which is already pretty popular in prostate surgeries. The next major growth arena appears to be an even larger one -- hysterectomies. After that, there are still applications like acid reflux surgery, artery takedowns for bypass surgery, gastric bypasses, spinal surgery, and so on. And don't take that to mean that it's a one-at-a-time proposition; I see no reason that usage can't expand in several directions at once -- other than the constraints of hospital budgets and a limit to the number of available hours per machine per day.
Perhaps it's an amusing comparison given the discrepancies in size, but I'm wondering whether Intuitive Surgical will soon begin to face a problem that Medtronic
If you invest in growing med-tech companies like Intuitive or Aspect Medical
For more Foolishness:
- Of Intuition and Intuitive Surgical
- Dueling Fools: Intuitive Surgical
- Intuitive Surgical Is a Cut Above
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Fool contributor Stephen Simpson has no financial interest in any stocks mentioned (that means he's neither long nor short the shares).