William Blair & Company Initiates Coverage of Intuitive Surgical, Inc. With Outperform Rating

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--William Blair & Company initiated research coverage of Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (Nasdaq: ISRG) ($270.26), which manufactures and sells the da Vinci robotic surgical system, with an Outperform rating and Aggressive Growth company profile.

“Intuitive Surgical is transforming the field of surgery with its da Vinci robotic surgery system”

Analyst Ben Andrew expects the company to generate cash earnings per share of $6.18 in 2008 and $8.37 in 2009. To date, Intuitive Surgical has placed 867 da Vinci robots worldwide (647 of those in the United States) with most clinicians strongly embracing da Vinci as evidenced by the number of systems sold, the number of cases being performed, and the efforts of new surgeons to be trained on the system.

“Intuitive Surgical is transforming the field of surgery with its da Vinci robotic surgery system,” Andrew said. “Early case conversion from an open to a robotic approach has been robust for a few procedure types, and we expect more surgeons to leverage the unique capabilities of da Vinci in additional procedure types in the coming years—we believe the platform could become the standard of care in multiple surgical specialties in the next decade. Given that the company’s performance and prospects have not gone unnoticed, Intuitive Surgical is not an inexpensive stock, but we believe long-term investors will be well rewarded by establishing a core position at current levels and buying more aggressively on pullbacks.”

William Blair & Company, L.L.C. has received compensation for investment banking services from the company within the past 12 months, or expects to receive or intends to seek compensation for investment banking services in the next 3 months.

William Blair & Company, L.L.C. is a market maker in the security of this company and may have a long or short position.

William Blair & Company, L.L.C. (www.williamblair.com) is a Chicago-based investment firm offering investment banking, asset management, equity research, institutional and private brokerage, and private capital to individual, institutional, and issuing clients. Since 1935, we have been committed to helping clients achieve their financial objectives.

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