Evercore ISI analyst Vijay Kumar reiterated an In Line rating and $480.00 price target on Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ: ISRG).

The analyst comments "We are adding ISRG to our Tactical Outperform List (this is not a rating change but a tactical call specific to earnings catalyst) list heading into tomorrow’s earnings print as we are positive on procedures. Below is our rationale: Why now? ISRG shares are down -17% YTD, partly in sympathy to Medtech malaise and partly due to have-nots in Medtech not working. Last week JNJ Beat ST within its Surgical franchise, which is a positive indicator for ISRG’s procedure growth in general. Survey work supports the positive procedure outlook: We saw a clear signal supportive of robotic surgery volumes in our quarterly hospital capex and procedure survey (see Fig 1 below). We asked repeat responders to score procedure categories on 1 to 10 scale (with 10 being highest priority) for 1Q26. As seen below, ISRG ranked #1 while laparoscopic surgery was ranked last. Given that JNJ is a leader in lap surgery and still Beat ST despite lap scoring last, we believe ISRG should do well in 1Q26. We expect a procedure Beat based on JNJ’s results: JNJ report total surgery, advanced surgery and general surgery operation growth. Regression analysis showed that general surgery had the highest R square vs ISRG’s procedures (granted R sq was still low). Based on JNJ’s 1Q results, we est ISRG’s procedure growth to be ~16.5% in 1Q26 (consistent w 4Q), which is ~200 bps above ST (see Fig 2 below). When Ion biopsy procedures are included, we est total growth inclusive of Ion could be >17%. The call: ISRG shares have been range bound between $450-600 for the past 12 months and is currently trading at the low end of this range. Procedure growth is an important metric that the ST focuses on…with a potential for ~200 bps Beat, we expect ISRG shares to be up on 1Q print."

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Shares of Intuitive Surgical closed at $469.21 yesterday.