Intuitive Surgical Hits New 52-Week Low

Intuitive Surgical

fell to a new intra-day 52-week low on Friday after a doctors' group questioned the value of its da Vinci surgical devices late on Thursday. In the wake of the statement on Thursday, ISRG fell around 4 percent. In late trading on Friday, the stock was down around 6 percent to $458.96 with selling picking up late in the day. “Robotic surgery is not the only or the best minimally invasive approach for hysterectomy,” Dr. James T. Breeden said in a prepared statement on the ACOG web site. “Nor is it the most cost-efficient. It is important to separate the marketing hype from the reality when considering the best surgical approach for hysterectomies.” Intuitive Surgical has fallen around 20 percent in the last month as the company has seen a rise in device malfunction reports. Intuitive Surgical, however, has said that the increase is mainly due to changes in its reporting practices. According to the company most of the reports involved broken cables occurring in instruments on its devices. "These cable breaks render the instrument non-functional and require an instrument change, which can be accomplished quickly,” an Intuitive Surgical statement said.