Intuitive Surgical Sees Q4, 2013 Revenues Above View

(RTTNews) - Surgical systems maker Intuitive Surgical Inc. (ISRG) on Tuesday forecast revenue for the fourth quarter to decline about 5 percent and fiscal 2013 revenue to rise about 4 percent from the prior year. Both the revenue forecasts are above analysts' estimates. The company's shares are gaining more than 9 percent in the regular trading session.

For the fourth quarter, Sunnyvale, California-based Intuitive Surgical forecast revenue of about $576 million, down about 5 percent from $609 million in the year-ago period. On average, eighteen analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect the company to report revenue of $548.56 million for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

The company projects instruments and accessories revenue for the fourth quarter to increase about 6 percent to about $268 million from $254 million in the same period of the prior year. The revenue growth was driven by a 12 percent increase in da Vinci procedures, partially offset by a reduction in stocking orders related to a decline in system sales.

Intuitive sold 138 da Vinci Surgical Systems during the fourth quarter, compared with 175 systems in the prior-year period.

The decline in sales were driven by lower U.S. sales reflecting moderating procedure growth in benign gynecology, combined with changing hospital capital spending priorities associated with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. These were partially offset by higher international systems sales, led by higher da Vinci system sales in Japan.

The company also forecast preliminary fourth-quarter da Vinci Surgical Systems revenue to decrease about 23 percent to approximately $205 million from $265 million in the year-ago period.

Intuitive Surgical projects preliminary fourth-quarter service revenue to increase about 14 percent to approximately $103 million from $91 million in the prior-year quarter.

For fiscal 2013, Intuitive Surgical forecast revenue to increase 4 percent to about $2.265 billion from $2.179 billion in the prior year. Analysts have a consensus revenue estimate for the year of $2.24 billion.

Intuitive Surgical noted that in 2013, about 523,000 surgical procedures were performed with the da Vinci Surgical System, representing a 16 percent increase from about 450,000 procedures performed in 2012. The growth in overall 2013 procedure volume was driven by the growth in U.S. general surgery procedures, U.S. gynecologic procedures, and urology procedures outside of the U.S.

Intuitive Surgical is scheduled to report its fourth-quarter 2013 results in a conference call on January 23, 2014, at which point the company will discuss the 2013 financial results in more detail.

In Tuesday's regular session, ISRG is trading at $430.43, up $37.36 or 9.50 percent on a volume of 746,763 shares.