Franklin Resources Inc. Sells 538,284 Shares of Intuitive Surgical, Inc. $ISRG

Franklin Resources Inc. lessened its position in Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISRG) by 17.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,559,933 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock after selling 538,284 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. owned about 0.72% of Intuitive Surgical worth $1,449,844,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Draper Asset Management LLC grew its position in Intuitive Surgical by 41.9% during the fourth quarter. Draper Asset Management LLC now owns 5,029 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock worth $2,848,000 after buying an additional 1,485 shares in the last quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC grew its position in Intuitive Surgical by 787.8% during the fourth quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC now owns 4,794 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock worth $2,715,000 after buying an additional 4,254 shares in the last quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Intuitive Surgical by 29.3% during the fourth quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 71,077 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock worth $40,255,000 after buying an additional 16,119 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Intuitive Surgical by 0.8% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 33,599,661 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock worth $15,026,776,000 after buying an additional 263,828 shares in the last quarter. Finally, China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its position in Intuitive Surgical by 22.5% during the third quarter. China Universal Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 11,463 shares of the medical equipment provider’s stock worth $5,127,000 after buying an additional 2,102 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.64% of the company’s stock.

Intuitive Surgical Stock Performance

ISRG opened at $422.06 on Monday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $447.24 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $500.70. The company has a market cap of $149.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.16, a PEG ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 1.46. Intuitive Surgical, Inc. has a 1-year low of $396.68 and a 1-year high of $603.88.

Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ:ISRG) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, April 21st. The medical equipment provider reported $2.50 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.08 by $0.42. The company had revenue of $2.77 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.62 billion. Intuitive Surgical had a net margin of 28.15% and a return on equity of 15.98%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 23.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.81 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Intuitive Surgical, Inc. will post 8.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

ISRG has been the subject of several analyst reports. HSBC dropped their target price on shares of Intuitive Surgical from $653.00 to $604.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. Evercore lowered their price objective on shares of Intuitive Surgical from $550.00 to $480.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 6th. Leerink Partners decreased their price target on shares of Intuitive Surgical from $622.00 to $573.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 22nd. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Intuitive Surgical from $570.00 to $550.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 17th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Intuitive Surgical from $575.00 to $610.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 22nd. Nineteen investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Intuitive Surgical has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $573.63.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Amy L. Ladd sold 119 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $463.50, for a total value of $55,156.50. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 120 shares in the company, valued at $55,620. This represents a 49.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, EVP Gary Loeb sold 400 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $446.95, for a total transaction of $178,780.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 6,120 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,735,334. This trade represents a 6.13% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last three months, insiders have sold 6,803 shares of company stock worth $2,911,573. Company insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

Intuitive Surgical Company Profile

Intuitive Surgical, founded in 1995 and headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, is a medical technology company focused on the design, manufacture and service of robotic-assisted surgical systems. The company is best known for its da Vinci surgical systems, which enable minimally invasive procedures by translating a surgeon’s hand movements into finer, scaled motions of small instruments inside the patient. Intuitive’s business centers on supplying hospitals and surgical centers with systems, instruments and related technologies that aim to improve precision, visualization and control in the operating room.

In addition to its core surgical platforms, Intuitive markets a portfolio of reusable and disposable instruments, accessories, and proprietary software, and provides training, servicing and clinical support to its customers.