Imagine for a moment that you have the opportunity to invest in a company that:
lots of room to grow.Would you do it?
These are great reasons to buy
I admit it. I was bullish about Intuitive Surgical back in February 2006 -- because it had everything going for it.
Its da Vinci robots had revolutionized surgery. They offered smaller scars, faster healing, and fewer surgical infections. Because it takes years of research and a long, expensive FDA approval process to bring a device to market, its competitive advantage was, in effect, protected by the government. And the company was tiny. At that time, Intuitive Surgical had just closed a year with $227 million in sales -- compared to the $2.8 billion quarter fellow device maker Medtronic had just completed.
I liked Intuitive Surgical so much that I proclaimed that it had the potential to revolutionize its industry. I had visions of it becoming practically as ubiquitous in surgical settings as the electricity that American Electric Power (NYSE: AEP) generates is in the rest of our lives.
In other words, the company and its stock were poised for success, and both saw that success play out. Since I wrote that article, even in the midst of this current chaos, Intuitive Surgical shares have blown past both the overall market and others in its industry:
Company
Price on
02/09/2006
Price on
01/02/2009
Change
Intuitive Surgical
$101.50
$132.41
30%
Advanced Medical Optics (NYSE: EYE)
$43.37
$6.87
(84%)
American Medical Systems (Nasdaq: AMMD)
$21.21
$8.94
(58%)
Wright Medical Group (Nasdaq: WMGI)
$21.73
$20.41
(6%)
S&P 500 Continued... |