Stock advice: Intuitive Surgical reports higher sales and earnings

Intuitive Surgical, symbol ISRG on Nasdaq, makes the “da Vinci,” a computerized surgical system. Intuitive trades at a high price per share, but you can buy as few as you wish through any broker. You can get our stock advice on Intuitive and other aggressive picks in our Stock Pickers Digest newsletter. Guided by a miniature camera connected to a 3-D monitor, surgeons use the da Vinci to operate by remotely manipulating tiny robotic arms. This is safer and far less invasive than regular surgery. It reduces the patient’s recovery time, post-operative discomfort, scarring and infection risk. In the three months ended March 31, 2011, Intuitive earned $104.1 million, or $2.66 a share. That’s up 22.0% from $85.3 million, or $2.20 a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose 18.1%, to $388.1 million from $328.6 million. Revenue from replenishable supplies rose 28.3%. Intuitive gets over half of its income from stable and steady sales of replacement parts, training and other services. Intuitive is debt free, and has cash of $1.8 billion, or $45.92 a share. It spends a high 8% of its revenue on research, and may use some of its cash to expand. If you’re looking for stock advice on aggressive picks like Intuitive Surgical, you should subscribe to Stock Pickers Digest. What’s more, you can get one month free when you subscribe today. Click here to learn how.

Jim is an associate editor at TSI Network. He is the lead reporter and analyst for The Successful Investor and Wall Street Stock Forecaster and a member of the Investment Planning Committee. Jim has held the Chartered Financial Analyst designation since 1992 and spent more than a decade at the Financial Post DataGroup before joining TSI Network. He has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Toronto.