Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISRG) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISRG) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 2,990,000 shares, a growth of 16.3% from the August 15th total of 2,570,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,780,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.7 days.

Intuitive Surgical Stock Up 0.9 %

Intuitive Surgical stock opened at $298.17 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $314.56 and its 200 day simple moving average is $298.07. The stock has a market cap of $104.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 74.73, a P/E/G ratio of 4.15 and a beta of 1.30. Intuitive Surgical has a 12-month low of $180.07 and a 12-month high of $358.07.

Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ:ISRG) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 20th. The medical equipment provider reported $1.42 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.33 by $0.09. Intuitive Surgical had a net margin of 21.38% and a return on equity of 12.41%. The company had revenue of $1.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.74 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.85 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 15.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Intuitive Surgical will post 4.53 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Amy L. Ladd sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $305.68, for a total value of $152,840.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $214,587.36. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, Director Amy L. Ladd sold 500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $305.68, for a total transaction of $152,840.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $214,587.36. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Alan J. Levy sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $310.00, for a total transaction of $620,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 25,319 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $7,848,890. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 60,309 shares of company stock worth $19,649,321 in the last quarter. 0.90% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Intuitive Surgical

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich lifted its stake in Intuitive Surgical by 99,583.4% in the second quarter. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich now owns 643,694,311 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock valued at $220,104,833,000 after buying an additional 643,048,572 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Intuitive Surgical in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $915,360,000. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in Intuitive Surgical by 29.9% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 5,866,613 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock worth $1,556,706,000 after acquiring an additional 1,351,002 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can acquired a new position in Intuitive Surgical during the second quarter valued at approximately $294,657,000. Finally, Barclays PLC increased its stake in Intuitive Surgical by 159.5% in the second quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 1,379,246 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock valued at $471,619,000 after purchasing an additional 847,651 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 82.91% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

ISRG has been the subject of a number of research reports. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Intuitive Surgical from $310.00 to $330.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, July 24th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Intuitive Surgical from $314.00 to $385.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, July 24th. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of Intuitive Surgical from $317.00 to $400.00 in a research report on Monday, July 10th. Truist Financial lifted their price objective on Intuitive Surgical from $347.00 to $400.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 19th. Finally, StockNews.com initiated coverage on Intuitive Surgical in a research report on Thursday, August 17th. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Intuitive Surgical has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $343.10.

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 to enable 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.