North Star Asset Management Inc. Makes New Investment in Intuitive Surgical, Inc. $ISRG

North Star Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISRG) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor acquired 23,779 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock, valued at approximately $9,456,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of ISRG. Dearborn Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Intuitive Surgical during the 2nd quarter valued at $270,000. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio purchased a new stake in Intuitive Surgical in the 2nd quarter worth $55,894,000. Blue Edge Capital LLC purchased a new stake in Intuitive Surgical in the 2nd quarter worth $486,000. Bamco Inc. NY bought a new stake in Intuitive Surgical during the second quarter valued at about $37,353,000. Finally, Ancora Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Intuitive Surgical during the second quarter valued at about $970,000. 83.64% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Gary S. Guthart sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, August 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $400.00, for a total transaction of $4,000,000.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 1,245,679 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $498,271,600. This represents a 0.80% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Mark Brosius sold 77 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $375.57, for a total value of $28,918.89. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 881 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $330,877.17. This represents a 8.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 17,283 shares of company stock worth $7,015,429. Insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Intuitive Surgical Stock Down 0.9%

Shares of Intuitive Surgical stock opened at $367.07 on Friday. Intuitive Surgical, Inc. has a twelve month low of $328.57 and a twelve month high of $603.88. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $385.28 and a 200-day moving average price of $433.18. The firm has a market cap of $129.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.05, a PEG ratio of 2.68 and a beta of 1.46.

Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ:ISRG) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 16th. The medical equipment provider reported $2.80 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.48 by $0.32. Intuitive Surgical had a return on equity of 16.91% and a net margin of 28.45%.The company had revenue of $2.89 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.83 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.81 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that Intuitive Surgical, Inc. will post 8.87 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have recently commented on ISRG. Bank of America lowered their price objective on Intuitive Surgical from $520.00 to $515.00 in a research report on Friday, June 12th. Mizuho set a $500.00 target price on Intuitive Surgical and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. HSBC cut Intuitive Surgical from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $391.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Leerink Partners dropped their price target on Intuitive Surgical from $573.00 to $454.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, July 17th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group set a $558.00 price objective on shares of Intuitive Surgical in a report on Wednesday, May 27th. Twenty-two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eight have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $508.68.

About Intuitive Surgical

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.