What Happened?

Shares of medical technology company Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ:ISRG) fell 6.2% in the afternoon session after Deutsche Bank cut the stock's rating from Hold to Sell and slashed its price target to $440 from $515, after identifying accelerating competition from lower-cost remanufactured instruments in the Instruments & Accessories segment.

Conversations with multiple robotic-surgery programs suggest a growing shift toward these third-party devices, threatening both Intuitive's market share and margins, and putting up to 46 % of its U.S. I&A revenue at risk. While the bank's model shows little financial drag in 2026, it expects pressure to emerge in 2027 and intensify through 2028.

The shares closed the day at $525.93, down 5.6% from previous close.

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What The Market Is Telling Us

Intuitive Surgical’s shares are not very volatile and have only had 8 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful, although it might not be something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.

Intuitive Surgical is up 0.4% since the beginning of the year, but at $526.01 per share, it is still trading 13.8% below its 52-week high of $610.45 from January 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Intuitive Surgical’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $2,700.

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