Yahoo Finance If You Had Bought Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ:ISRG) Stock Five Years Ago, You Could Pocket A 271% Gain Today
The most you can lose on any stock (assuming you don't use leverage) is 100% of your money. But on the bright side, you can make far more than 100% on a really good stock. Long term Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISRG) shareholders would be well aware of this, since the stock is up 271% in five years. In the last week shares have slid back 4.4%.
See our latest analysis for Intuitive Surgical
There is no denying that markets are sometimes efficient, but prices do not always reflect underlying business performance. One flawed but reasonable way to assess how sentiment around a company has changed is to compare the earnings per share (EPS) with the share price.
During five years of share price growth, Intuitive Surgical achieved compound earnings per share (EPS) growth of 11% per year. This EPS growth is lower than the 30% average annual increase in the share price. So it's fair to assume the market has a higher opinion of the business than it did five years ago. That's not necessarily surprising considering the five-year track record of earnings growth. This favorable sentiment is reflected in its (fairly optimistic) P/E ratio of 78.23.
The image below shows how EPS has tracked over time (if you click on the image you can see greater detail).
This free interactive report on Intuitive Surgical's earnings, revenue and cash flow is a great place to start, if you want to investigate the stock further.
A Different Perspective
Intuitive Surgical shareholders gained a total return of 25% during the year. But that return falls short of the market. It's probably a good sign that the company has an even better long term track record, having provided shareholders with an annual TSR of 30% over five years. Maybe the share price is just taking a breather while the business executes on its growth strategy. Before forming an opinion on Intuitive Surgical you might want to consider these 3 valuation metrics.
If you are like me, then you will not want to miss this free list of growing companies that insiders are buying.
Please note, the market returns quoted in this article reflect the market weighted average returns of stocks that currently trade on US exchanges.
This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
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