Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ:ISRG) Upgraded at Morgan Stanley

Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ:ISRG) from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a research note released on Monday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has $650.00 price objective on the medical equipment provider’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $522.00.

Several other equities analysts have also commented on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on shares of Intuitive Surgical from $475.00 to $525.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Oppenheimer restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Intuitive Surgical in a report on Friday, October 18th. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $604.00 price objective on shares of Intuitive Surgical in a report on Friday, October 18th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Intuitive Surgical from $512.00 to $560.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 22nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Intuitive Surgical from $495.00 to $575.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, October 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $536.61.

Intuitive Surgical Price Performance

Intuitive Surgical stock opened at $549.95 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $513.56 and a 200-day simple moving average of $472.07. Intuitive Surgical has a 1-year low of $304.50 and a 1-year high of $552.08. The stock has a market cap of $195.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 88.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.34 and a beta of 1.38.

Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ:ISRG) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 17th. The medical equipment provider reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.24 by $0.32. Intuitive Surgical had a net margin of 28.51% and a return on equity of 13.41%. The business had revenue of $2.04 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.01 billion. Equities analysts expect that Intuitive Surgical will post 5.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Intuitive Surgical news, General Counsel Gary Loeb sold 300 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $475.00, for a total transaction of $142,500.00. Following the transaction, the general counsel now directly owns 1,595 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $757,625. This trade represents a 15.83 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Gary S. Guthart sold 18,151 shares of Intuitive Surgical stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $511.63, for a total transaction of $9,286,596.13. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 24,219 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,391,166.97. The trade was a 42.84 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 51,023 shares of company stock valued at $26,384,247. Insiders own 0.80% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Intuitive Surgical

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Intuitive Surgical by 1.4% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,050,121 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock valued at $7,393,673,000 after acquiring an additional 210,363 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Intuitive Surgical by 8.3% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 10,971,085 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock valued at $5,389,765,000 after purchasing an additional 838,793 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Intuitive Surgical by 1.9% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,512,925 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock valued at $3,677,194,000 after purchasing an additional 143,440 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Intuitive Surgical by 1.8% in the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 4,782,381 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock valued at $2,349,441,000 after purchasing an additional 86,208 shares during the period. Finally, Baillie Gifford & Co. lifted its stake in shares of Intuitive Surgical by 0.6% in the third quarter. Baillie Gifford & Co. now owns 3,848,547 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock valued at $1,890,676,000 after purchasing an additional 24,183 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.64% of the company’s stock.

About Intuitive Surgical

Intuitive Surgical, Inc develops, manufactures, and markets products that enable physicians and healthcare providers to enhance the quality of and access to minimally invasive care in the United States and internationally. The company offers the da Vinci Surgical System that enables complex surgery using a minimally invasive approach; and Ion endoluminal system, which extends its commercial offerings beyond surgery into diagnostic procedures enabling minimally invasive biopsies in the lung.