Intuitive Surgical's share repurchases add capital return to its case as one of the highest-quality compounders in medical robotics. It bought back $4.45B of shares in the first nine months of 2026, including $2.94B in Q3, while kicking off an early Stage 2 uptrend after reclaiming its 200-day SMA. x.com 

Intuitive Surgical is a high-quality business near its 200-week moving average, the entry point Charlie Munger said would beat the S&P 500 by a wide margin over time. At the cutting edge of robotics and soon AI in healthcare, with no competition, very high barriers to entry and huge switching costs, it deserves a premium. At 34x forward earnings it is expensive but tolerable; about 30x is close to fair value, 25x is cheap and 20x a slam dunk. x.com  x.com  x.com 

Intuitive Surgical's valuation has become much more reasonable but is still a little too expensive with growth slowing. At its highs it traded at about 18x next-twelve-month revenue, which was nonsense. x.com 

Intuitive Surgical's 40% year-to-date drop is extremely disrespectful to one of the best businesses in the world, with revenue growing 19%. A model assuming 14% revenue CAGR, a 33% 2031 margin, a 38x P/E and 1% yearly buybacks gives a $487 fair value and a $535 one-year target, about 49% upside from $360. It is too far ahead of competitors, Chinese robots are unlikely to disrupt Western markets, and about 40x is fair, half the multiple of five years ago. x.com  x.com  x.com  x.com  x.com  x.com  x.com 

Intuitive Surgical ranks eighth on a list of stocks, following Microsoft. x.com 

Intuitive Surgical does not look cheap at the current price, contrary to the view that it is very tempting, though something could be missing. x.com 

Intuitive Surgical has fallen about 34% from its high and trades at 35x forward earnings, a drawdown that puts it on a list of names alongside Kinsale Capital. x.com 

Intuitive Surgical's surgical-robot moat is sturdier than the fear that sent it down about a third this year. The worry is that Medtronic and J&J will finally break its monopoly; maybe eventually, but surgeons train on its system for years and hospitals build workflows around it, so switching is hard. Thousands of placed systems keep generating recurring revenue for years. It's also a genuinely different bet from rates or AI spending. x.com 

Intuitive Surgical is still expensive, even at a 31x forward P/E that marks its lowest forward multiple in a decade. x.com 

Intuitive Surgical is a small bullish bet as healthcare and software strengthen and money rotates out of semiconductors. It did well on its last two earnings reports and shows a potential, unconfirmed daily bullish divergence. It then posted a double beat, EPS of $2.50 versus $2.10 and revenue of $2.77B versus $2.61B, but the stock barely reacted because the market's bar is extremely high. A put/call ratio near 0.97 signals excess optimism, and high implied volatility risks a crush. x.com