Intuitive Surgical down in Q4, sees 4% growth year-over-year

Intuitive Surgical today announced preliminary fourth quarter and full year 2013 financial results, which showed that following a year in which the company faced mounting criticism over aggressive marketing tactics and under-reported complications, it still made a lot of money.

Intuitive expects fourth-quarter revenue of approximately $576 million, down about 5 percent from $609 million for the fourth quarter of 2012. For the full year, the company expects revenue of approximately $2.26 billion, up about 4 percent compared to full year 2012 revenue of $2.17 billion. Those results may change pending the completion of review and audit procedures.

The results beat analyst expectations, and the company’s stock, which has taken a beating this year, rose nearly 7 percent to $419.

A 16 percent increase in the number of procedures performed (523,000) helped the company offset a drop in the number of systems sold. Intuitive sold 138 da Vinci Surgical Systems during the fourth quarter compared with 175 systems in 2012. For the full year, the company sold 546 systems compared with 620 systems during 2012.

Intuitive said lower systems 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, partially offset by higher international systems sales, led by higher da Vinci system sales in Japan.”

[ photo ©2014 Intuitive Surgical Inc. ]