Intuitive Surgical Placed 546 da Vinci Systems Last Quarter. Why Wall Street's Sell-Off Misses the Point.
Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ: ISRG) sold off after it reported third-quarter 2026 earnings. And despite the stock starting to bounce back from that drop, it remains down roughly 20% from its 52-week high as of this writing. To be fair, the stock is richly valued, but investors may be missing the long-term story, which is driven not by the sale of the company's da Vinci surgical robot, but by the parts and services sold to support those robots. Here's what you need to know. Intuitive Surgical's price-to-sales ratio is roughly 14.5x, while its price-to-earnings ratio is over 56x. Those are both very large numbers, which suggest the stock is expensive. So, on an absolute basis, it makes sense that investors are a bit leery of any news perceived as negative. However, the five-year average P/S ratio is 17.2x, with the five-year average P/E at 66x. Thus, relative to the company's own history, it looks cheap and, for more aggressive growth investors , it is probably worth a deep dive. Image source: Getty Images. Continue reading