Clearbridge Investments LLC Sells 49,972 Shares of Intuitive Surgical, Inc. $ISRG

Clearbridge Investments LLC trimmed its stake in shares of Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISRG) by 2.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,683,260 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock after selling 49,972 shares during the quarter. Intuitive Surgical accounts for about 0.8% of Clearbridge Investments LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 25th largest position. Clearbridge Investments LLC owned about 0.47% of Intuitive Surgical worth $953,331,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in ISRG. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Intuitive Surgical by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 33,599,661 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock worth $15,026,776,000 after acquiring an additional 263,828 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors increased its stake in Intuitive Surgical by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 7,856,018 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock worth $4,449,491,000 after acquiring an additional 127,526 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Intuitive Surgical in the 4th quarter worth about $2,856,987,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Intuitive Surgical by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 3,889,439 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock worth $1,739,475,000 after acquiring an additional 40,702 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Amundi increased its stake in Intuitive Surgical by 29.7% in the 3rd quarter. Amundi now owns 3,227,472 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock worth $1,451,362,000 after acquiring an additional 739,444 shares during the last quarter. 83.64% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Mizuho set a $525.00 target price on Intuitive Surgical and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, April 13th. Leerink Partners decreased their target price on Intuitive Surgical from $622.00 to $573.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on Intuitive Surgical from $625.00 to $550.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group set a $558.00 target price on Intuitive Surgical in a research note on Wednesday, May 27th. Finally, Citigroup upgraded Intuitive Surgical from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $590.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 11th. Nineteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $573.63.

Intuitive Surgical Price Performance

Shares of ISRG stock opened at $422.06 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $149.48 billion, a PE ratio of 51.16, a P/E/G ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 1.46. Intuitive Surgical, Inc. has a 1-year low of $396.68 and a 1-year high of $603.88. The business has a 50-day moving average of $447.24 and a 200 day moving average of $501.02.

Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ:ISRG) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, April 21st. The medical equipment provider reported $2.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.08 by $0.42. The company had revenue of $2.77 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.62 billion. Intuitive Surgical had a return on equity of 15.98% and a net margin of 28.15%.Intuitive Surgical’s quarterly revenue was up 23.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.81 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Intuitive Surgical, Inc. will post 8.57 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Intuitive Surgical

In other Intuitive Surgical news, Director Amy L. Ladd sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $473.46, for a total transaction of $236,730.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 239 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $113,156.94. This represents a 67.66% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Gary Loeb sold 400 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $446.95, for a total value of $178,780.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 6,120 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,735,334. The trade was a 6.13% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold a total of 7,448 shares of company stock worth $3,224,404 over the last three months. 0.60% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Intuitive Surgical Profile

Intuitive Surgical, founded in 1995 and headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, is a medical technology company focused on the design, manufacture and service of robotic-assisted surgical systems. The company is best known for its da Vinci surgical systems, which enable minimally invasive procedures by translating a surgeon’s hand movements into finer, scaled motions of small instruments inside the patient. Intuitive’s business centers on supplying hospitals and surgical centers with systems, instruments and related technologies that aim to improve precision, visualization and control in the operating room.

In addition to its core surgical platforms, Intuitive markets a portfolio of reusable and disposable instruments, accessories, and proprietary software, and provides training, servicing and clinical support to its customers.