Intuitive Surgical stock surges toward record highs after earnings

Intuitive Surgical Inc. ISRG, +3.75%shares moved into record territory in after-hours trading Tuesday after the company reported much larger sales of its surgical robots than expected. The surgical-robots company reported first-quarter net income of $288 million, or $2.44 a share, in both standard and adjusted calculations, up from adjusted earnings of $1.

71 a share a year ago and easily beating the average analyst estimate of $2.07. The company reported revenue of $848 million, up 25% from last year and well ahead of the average analyst estimate of $777 million. The big sales beat was helped by sales of new robots, with the company saying it sold 185 da Vinci surgical systems in the quarter, while analysts on average expected 144 sales of full robots. In the same quarter last year, Intuitive Surgical sold 133 da Vinci robots. After closing with a 4.1% gain at $435.45, shares jumped about 6% in late trading, hitting levels that would top Intuitive Surgical's intraday record of $452 if they were to happen in a regular session. Intuitive Surgical stock has added 70% in the past year, as the S&P 500 index SPX, +0.03%has gained 14%.