Larry MDR

Intuitive Surgical: What Are the Limits of Robotic Surgery?

It always amazes me that many analysts miss 'the larger point' (probably because they're too busy writing opinions on other stocks the don't know much about, are shorted sighted, inexperienced, have done limited research on the subject on the subject they're writing about). They are totally missing that the market for robotic surgery in the rest-of-the-world is FAR BIGGER than the US market. Believe me, men with prostate problems throughout Europe and Asia want to get out of the hospital quicker, with much less recovery time. The last I time I heard US population divided by world population: 300-million/ 6-billion = US is only 5% of world population. So the Barron's article cites:

"THE COMPANY'S MEASURE OF THE MARKET FOR ROBOTS may be far too optimistic. Jose J. Haresco, an
analyst at Merriman Curhan Ford in San Francisco, thinks there's room for about 1,800 da Vinci robots in the
U.S. and 600 more abroad."

So in a changing world where the US is no longer the 'only game in town', Barron's thinks 95% or 5,700,000,000 will only want/need access to 600 Da Vinci systems, while the 'elite US population' will have a max of 1,800? Not much logic in this projection IMO.

Lastly, after attending the annual meeting and getting to know the ISRG executives first hand, I believe there is no telling where their ingenuity will lead the company. Ie if they can manage to imagine, develop, manufacture, sell, train, deal with the FDA/hospitals/medicare and support the Da Vinci operating system across the US (and across the globe), there is 'no telling' how far they can go in the broader field of healthcare technology.