Shares of Intuitive Surgical Inc. ISRG, +0.52% rallied after hours on Tuesday after the maker of robotic surgical equipment said it expected fourth-quarter sales that were above Wall Street’s expectations, helped by a recovery in China.
The company reported preliminary fourth-quarter revenue of around $1.93 billion, up 17% and above FactSet forecasts for $1.87 billion. Procedures involving da Vinci, its robotic surgical system, jumped 21% from a year earlier, when COVID-19 cases re-emerged in China and weighed on procedures overall. Shares rose 5.4% after hours. Through last year, executives said, procedures in China rebounded as COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations fell. In the U.S., the company said, general surgery procedures drove usage of da Vinci through 2023, while cancer procedures led to more use outside the U.S.