Why Intuitive Surgical Stock Popped 8% on Friday
Shares of robotic surgery pioneer Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ: ISRG) are up 7.9% in 3:20 p.m. EDT trading Friday, a delayed but welcome reaction to some good news that came out Thursday. "Good news" for Intuitive Surgical, that is to say; less good news for would-be robotic surgery rivals Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) and Medtronic (NYSE: MDT). Yesterday morning (a down day for the stock market, which may be why Intuitive stock didn't react to it), Goldman Sachs noted that medical products giant Johnson & Johnson has suffered a "major delay" to its robotic surgery program.