Intuitive Surgical stock (ISRG) is down heavily after stating its earnings fell 24%, following weak demand for its robotic surgery system.
ISRG stock is down 7% in early morning trading.
The maker of robotic surgery systems late Tuesday forecast first-quarter revenue to fall 24% to $465 million, missing expectations. Intuitive also said it would book a pre-tax charge of $67 million in the first quarter.
Intuitive had already expected to sell fewer robots this year than the some 550 it sold last year, but the decline in revenue is significant.
Q1 revenue dropped from $611 million last year — a drop that was due directly to its robotic system sales that Wall Street had already been wary of since last year.
Intuitive Surgical stock sunk in 2013 following safety concerns from its da Vinci robot system — as well as issues with Intuitive’s marketing and sales practices.
But just earlier this month, the company said that US regulators had cleared an updated version of the robotic system.
The da Vinci robotic system is used for a variety of surgical procedures, including prostate surgeries.
