Can da Vinci 5 Expand Intuitive Surgical's TAM Beyond Core Surgeries?

Intuitive Surgical ISRG is increasingly positioning da Vinci 5 as more than an upgrade cycle — it is laying the groundwork for expansion into new surgical specialties that could meaningfully broaden the company’s long-term total addressable market. During the third-quarter 2025 earnings call, CEO David Rosa highlighted cardiac surgery as a potential frontier, noting that while adoption today remains limited, da Vinci systems are already being used off a small base in select cardiac procedures.

Management believes da Vinci 5’s enhanced precision, motion control, integrated imaging, and digital capabilities could make minimally invasive robotic surgery viable for a subset of cardiac patients who are not ideal candidates for percutaneous approaches. Rosa emphasized that this opportunity would require the development of new instrumentation alongside software and platform enhancements, suggesting cardiac is a medium-term R&D-driven expansion rather than an immediate revenue contributor. If successful, even incremental penetration into cardiac surgery — one of the largest and most complex surgical categories — could significantly expand ISRG’s TAM.

Intuitive Surgical has taken more near-term regulatory steps in general surgery. Since the second-quarter earnings call, the company has completed U.S. regulatory submissions for nipple-sparing mastectomy, signaling intent to broaden indications within existing surgical workflows. These procedures align closely with da Vinci’s established strengths in precision and tissue handling, potentially enabling faster clinical adoption once cleared.

Strategically, management framed these efforts around a consistent R&D philosophy, deploying Intuitive Surgical’s core competencies — robotic precision, advanced imaging, sensors, and AI-enabled digital tools — where unmet surgical needs remain. While timelines remain uncertain, the pipeline suggests da Vinci 5 is being architected not just to defend ISRG’s benign surgery base, but also to methodically push robotic-assisted surgery into higher-acuity and underpenetrated specialties over time.

Robotic Surgery Peer Roundup

As the surgical robotics landscape evolves beyond Intuitive Surgical’s dominance, two diversified medtech incumbents — Medtronic MDT and Johnson & Johnson's JNJ MedTech unit — have recorded strategically relevant regulatory clearances that expand their robotic platforms into new clinical applications. Their progress underscores a broader competitive dynamic in which regulatory milestones serve as de facto validations of market opportunity and innovation pathways.

In December 2025, Medtronic secured U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance for its Hugo robotic-assisted surgery (RAS) system for minimally invasive urologic procedures, including prostatectomy, nephrectomy, and cystectomy — collectively representing approximately 230,000 annual surgeries in the United States. This clearance effectively marks Hugo’s entry into the highly penetrated soft-tissue robotic segment traditionally dominated by ISRG’s da Vinci franchise and represents Medtronic’s first commercial robotic platform in the world’s largest surgical robotics market.

Johnson & Johnson MedTech’s robotic efforts are concentrated in the interventional pulmonology segment with its MONARCH Platform. In March 2025, JNJ received U.S. 510(k) clearance for MONARCH QUEST, a software and navigation enhancement to the MONARCH robotic-assisted bronchoscopy system that embeds AI-powered navigation algorithms and compatibility with advanced 3D imaging systems to improve access to peripheral lung nodules for biopsy procedures.

ISRG’s Price Performance, Valuation and Estimates

Shares of ISRG have gained 11.3% in the past six months compared with an 9.1% increase for the industry.

From a valuation standpoint, Intuitive Surgical trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 60.66, above the industry average. But it is still lower than its five-year median of 71.52. ISRG carries a Value Score of D.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Intuitive Surgical’s 2026 earnings implies an 11.1% rise from the year-ago period’s level.

The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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