Strong Procedure Growth but Capital Placements Decelerate for Intuitive

For us, procedure growth is the primary factor when assessing Intuitive's competitive positioning and long-term growth prospects. Thus, we call the firm's first quarter a relative success. Procedures, even despite minor omicron-related delays, were up 19% in the quarter globally and 16% in the U.S., which allowed Intuitive to slightly raise its procedure guidance. Most of the questions on the conference call, however, were about capital placements, which we have long assumed will continue to decelerate, which they did in the quarter. We maintain our full-year forecast and our fair value estimate for the firm. Our wide moat rating is unchanged.