Intuitive’s profits fall short in first quarter

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Intuitive posted first-quarter financial results that fell short of the consensus forecast on Wall Street for earnings, but exceeded analysts’ expectations for sales.

CEO Gary Guthart and CFO Jamie Samath discussed their efforts to address inflationary and supply chain challenges, with sole-source suppliers on their minds as they ramp up manufacturing capacity. (Go to our sister site Medical Design & Outsourcing for more details.)

The Sunnyvale, California–based robotic surgery technology developer reported profits of $366 million, or $1.02 per diluted share, on sales of $1.49 billion for the three months ended March 31, 2022. Compared with Q1 2021, that was a 14% decrease in the bottom line and 15% growth in sales.

Adjusted earnings per share were $1.00, 8¢ short of Wall Street, where analysts were looking for EPS of $1.08 on sales of $1.43 billion. Intuitive noted that it retroactively adjusted prior year EPS information to reflect a three-for-one stock split.

Worldwide procedures performed with Intuitive’s da Vinci surgical robot increased approximately 19% compared to the first quarter of 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic continued to hold back procedures, and supply chain disruptions continued, Guthart said.

“Regardless of the healthy procedure demand, we are challenged by environmental stresses including regional waves of COVID, staffing pressure at hospitals, component and raw material availability, and logistics delays,” he said while delivering prepared remarks. “While it’s difficult to forecast how long these headwinds will persist, our teams are working hard to meet the challenge in the quarter.”

Intuitive placed 311 da Vinci Surgical Systems in the quarter, a 4% increase from the same quarter last year. The company’s installed base grew to 6,920 at the end of March, up 13% from a year before.

Intuitive did not provide financial guidance for the second quarter or full-year 2022 but said it expects 12-16% procedure growth for the full year.

Rich Mahoney, Vice President of Research at Intuitive, will give a keynote presentation at the Healthcare Robotics Engineering Forum. The event, designed to support those delivering the next generation of healthcare robotics solutions, will take place on May 10-11, 2022 in Boston at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.

Mahoney’s keynote, titled “The Best for Everyone”, will discuss the opportunity for healthcare robotics solutions to expand access to quality healthcare, with corresponding improvements in outcomes and quality of life. He will also highlight the special role and responsibility of engineers to achieve these important goals. The keynote will take place on May 10, 2022 from 8:45 AM to 9:30 AM. 

The keynote will draw on Mahoney’s more than 30 years of experience in early-stage research, development and commercialization of healthcare robotics. Prior to Intuitive, he was the founder and CEO of Seismic, a spin-off venture from SRI International, which introduced a new integration of clothing and robotics designed to enhance mobility and overall quality of life for employee safety and consumer health. Before Seismic, Mahoney was the Director of SRI Robotics for more than seven years, where he led a team delivering cutting-edge robotics innovations and multiple spin out companies. He was the founding President of Silicon Valley Robotics. 

UPDATE: ISRG shares were down nearly 13% at $237.02 apiece after trading opened the next day. MassDevices‘s MedTech 100 Index, which includes stocks of the world’s largest medical device companies, was down about 3% on the day.