Earnings
Intuitive Surgical's revenue rises 22% on record system placements, but a $450 million antitrust charge cuts GAAP profit
Procedures grew about 15% and da Vinci placements jumped to 546, while the company spent $2.94 billion buying back stock in the quarter.
HedgeWeekly News Desk ·
Intuitive Surgical reported third-quarter revenue of $3.05 billion on Tuesday, up 22% from $2.51 billion a year earlier, according to its earnings release filed with the SEC. Worldwide procedures across its da Vinci and Ion systems rose about 15%. Da Vinci procedures grew about 14% and Ion procedures about 31%.
The company placed 546 da Vinci systems, up from 427 a year earlier. The new da Vinci 5 made up 315 of them. The da Vinci installed base grew 12% to 12,094 systems. Instruments and accessories revenue, which tracks procedure volumes, rose 18% to $1.80 billion, and systems revenue rose to $769 million from $590 million.
Headline profit fell. GAAP diluted earnings came to $1.49 a share, down from $1.95, after a $450 million pre-tax charge ($347 million after tax, or $0.99 a share) for an antitrust settlement that still needs court approval. Non-GAAP earnings rose to $3.00 a share from $2.40. Refunds of tariffs imposed under the IEEPA added $22 million after tax, and the non-GAAP gross margin widened to 69.9% from 68.0%.
Why it matters: once the one-off settlement is stripped out, the core business grew faster than its installed base and the margin improved. Intuitive narrowed its 2026 da Vinci procedure growth forecast to about 14% to 15%, from 13.5% to 15.5% in July. That keeps the same midpoint but removes the downside. Its non-GAAP gross margin guide of 68.7% to 69.3% still assumes a tariff cost of about 0.9 point. Capital return is also rising. Intuitive repurchased 7.8 million shares for $2.94 billion in the quarter, and cash and investments fell by $1.83 billion to $6.80 billion. Investors will watch whether the court approves the settlement and how quickly buybacks run down that cash pile.