UPDATE: Barrington Research Upgrades Intuitive Surgical to Outperform on Robotic Leadership

Barrington Research raised its rating on Intuitive Surgical

from Market Perform to Outperform and increased its price target to $650. Barrington Research noted, "HNSN announced this morning that ISRG will pay $20 million to extend its previous 2005 licensing agreement, which will provide ISRG co-exclusive rights to all patents filled for the three years following the previous 2005 agreement. … In our opinion, it is no secret that ISRG's $150 million annual R&D spend is likely to unleash significant new technologies that demonstrate the company's leadership position in robotic and minimally invasive technologies. This morning, there was further evidence that ISRG may be getting closer to demonstrating its leadership position as we saw an interesting investment into the extension a co-exclusive licensing agreement it has with Hansen Medical." Intuitive Surgical closed at $535.84 on Friday.