Is Intuitive Surgical Stock Worth More Than Its Competitors?

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Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) stock trades at 51.6 times earnings. That is the highest multiple among six health care companies in its peer group, even after the shares lost 17.6% from their October 30, 2025 close to post the worst return of the six. Buyers still paying that multiple appear to assume that Intuitive’s lead over its rivals will last. So what are you paying extra for?

You Pay For Intuitive’s Operating Margin

You are paying for profit. Globus Medical grew revenue 19.7% over its latest four fiscal quarters, close to Intuitive’s 20.5%. Globus stock, though, trades at 20.0 times earnings, well under half Intuitive’s multiple. The two companies diverge on margin: Intuitive kept 32.3% of its revenue as operating profit, against 21.4% at Globus.

Across the whole group, Intuitive ranks first on revenue growth and first on operating margin. Every one of its five peers has both a lower multiple and slower growth.

Intuitive’s margin lead is holding so far. Its own operating margin rose to 34.2% in fiscal Q3 2026 from 30.3% a year earlier. Its net margin, though, fell to 17.1% from 28.1%. The legal cost covered below explains that gap, since it sits below operating profit in these figures.

Intuitive Earns Most Of Its Revenue As Surgeons Operate

Intuitive collects most of its revenue each time a surgeon operates with its da Vinci robot. Management said recurring revenue made up 84% of fiscal Q3 2026 revenue. Instruments and accessories are the tools used in each operation and make up the biggest piece, bringing in $6.02 billion of the $10.1 billion Intuitive sold in fiscal 2025.

Intuitive needs surgeons to keep doing more da Vinci operations, and they are, though at a slower pace in the U.S. Da Vinci procedures grew 14% in fiscal Q3 2026. Management said that growth was 10% in the U.S., against 20% outside it.

Each operation will also bring in less. Management expects its instrument price cuts, together with a price reduction in China that starts in the fourth quarter, to lower da Vinci instrument revenue per procedure by about 3% to 5% once fully in place. Extended-life instruments are part of those price cuts and will roll out by country beginning in the first half of 2027. Instrument revenue per procedure rose to about $1,860 in fiscal Q3 2026 from $1,800 a year earlier, driven mainly by more SP procedures and da Vinci 5 instruments.

What Intuitive Expects For Fiscal 2026

Management narrowed its fiscal 2026 forecast for da Vinci procedure growth to 14% to 15%, from 13.5% to 15.5% in July. The midpoint stayed at 14.5%, so the narrower range did not lower what management expects for the year.

You also cannot see in the 51.6 multiple that Intuitive took a legal cost in the latest quarter. Management said Intuitive’s fiscal Q3 2026 GAAP results reflect a $450 million litigation settlement. Net income that quarter was $523 million, against $818 million in the quarter before. The multiple is measured on twelve months of profit that include that quarter, so the lower profit pushes the multiple up.

If either the margin lead or procedure growth slips, you would be holding the most expensive stock in the group without the edge that set it apart.

Intuitive’s operating margin lead over its peers is intact. Procedure growth looks less secure, with U.S. growth behind the rest of the world and the instrument price cuts still to come. When Intuitive reports in January 2027, da Vinci procedure growth for all of 2026 against management’s own range is the figure to watch.

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