Intuitive Surgical Results Beat on Growing Demand for Surgical Robots

Representation photo: Employees work at the office of humanoid robots developer Ex-Robots in Dalian, Liaoning province, China June 6, 2024. REUTERS/Florence Lo
Representation photo: Employees work at the office of humanoid robots developer Ex-Robots in Dalian, Liaoning province, China June 6, 2024. REUTERS/Florence Lo
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Intuitive Surgical Results Beat on Growing Demand for Surgical Robots

Representation photo: Employees work at the office of humanoid robots developer Ex-Robots in Dalian, Liaoning province, China June 6, 2024. REUTERS/Florence Lo
Representation photo: Employees work at the office of humanoid robots developer Ex-Robots in Dalian, Liaoning province, China June 6, 2024. REUTERS/Florence Lo

Intuitive Surgical on Thursday beat estimates for second-quarter profit and revenue on growing demand for its surgical robots used in minimally invasive procedures, sending its shares up 6.7% after the bell.
Investor expectations around medical device makers have grown lately on hopes of elevated demand for surgical procedures as people, especially older adults, opt for medical procedures deferred during the pandemic, Reuters said.
On an adjusted basis, Intuitive earned $1.78 per share for the quarter ended June 30, beating analysts' estimates of $1.54 per share, according to LSEG data.
The company reported quarterly revenue of $2.01 billion, compared with analysts' estimates of $1.97 billion.
The rise in revenue was driven in part by growth in the procedure volume from the company's surgical robots called da Vinci. Worldwide da Vinci procedure volumes rose about 17%, from a year ago, the company said.
Industry bellwether Johnson & Johnson on Wednesday posted a 2.2% rise in second quarter sales at its medical technology business, but fell short of analysts' estimates.
Larger peer Abbott Laboratories also raised its annual profit forecast, helped by double-digit growth in sales of its glucose monitors and strong demand for heart devices.



EU Says Trump Arrival Will Not Impact Big Tech Cases

The logos of mobile apps, Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Netflix, are displayed on a screen in this illustration picture taken December 3, 2019. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/File Photo
The logos of mobile apps, Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Netflix, are displayed on a screen in this illustration picture taken December 3, 2019. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/File Photo
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EU Says Trump Arrival Will Not Impact Big Tech Cases

The logos of mobile apps, Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Netflix, are displayed on a screen in this illustration picture taken December 3, 2019. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/File Photo
The logos of mobile apps, Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Netflix, are displayed on a screen in this illustration picture taken December 3, 2019. REUTERS/Regis Duvignau/File Photo

The European Commission said on Tuesday it was assessing its cases against Apple, Google and Meta and that President-elect Donald Trump's impending arrival in the White House did not affect its commitment to enforcing its laws on big tech.

The European Commission has carried out a series of investigations into US tech firms under its Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act, which seek to make large platforms adhere to market rules and act against illegal content, according to Reuters.

Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg said Europe was "institutionalizing censorship".

"We have been very clear that no matter which administration is in place in third countries, this will not affect our enforcement work," a Commission spokesperson told the EU's executive's daily briefing.

The Financial Times reported that the European Commission was reassessing its investigations of Apple, Meta and Google in a review that could lead it to scale back or change its investigations that could lead to fines as US groups urge Trump to intervene.

The Commission denied it was carrying out a review.

"What we do have is upcoming meetings to assess maturity of cases, to assess the allocation of resources and the general readiness of the investigation," the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said that the cases were still being handled at a technical level and so not reached a point at which decisions could be taken.

"Obviously there may be a political reality which puts pressure on the technical work, but we need to distinguish the two stages because we need to have a court-proof investigation," another spokesperson said.