My 1 Top AI Healthcare Stock to Buy and Hold Forever
Key Points
Intuitive Surgical is the 800-pound gorilla in the robotic surgery realm.
It has more than 11,000 systems installed worldwide.
It's growing in part by obtaining approval to perform more kinds of procedures.
- 10 stocks we like better than Intuitive Surgical ›
The fact that, per Fidelity, a 65-year-old person retiring in 2025 could expect to spend $172,500, on average, on medical and healthcare expenses throughout their retirement makes clear what most of us know: Healthcare is costly. That's not great news for us as patients, but for investors, it suggests that there's a lot of money to be made in healthcare.
One of the most successful companies in the healthcare realm is Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ: ISRG), the giant in robotic surgeries. It's also a company embracing artificial intelligence (AI). I'm a shareholder, and I plan to hold on to my shares for a very long time. Here's why.
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Image source: Getty Images.
Meet Intuitive Surgical
The Intuitive Surgical website announces that "we believe minimally invasive care is life-enhancing care." And it shares some impressive numbers:
- 16 million-plus procedures performed worldwide through 2024 using the company's da Vinci systems.
- 72 countries with da Vinci systems in use.
- 11,106-plus da Vinci systems around the world.
- Every 11.75 seconds a surgeon commences a procedure with a da Vinci system.
Its success with the da Vinci system has been remarkable, and the company now has another system -- the Ion, for robotic bronchoscopies and lung biopsies.
The icing on the cake with this company is that only about a quarter of its revenue comes from selling its extremely expensive systems. The rest is from servicing and supplies -- and that's dependable, recurring revenue.
Still growing rapidly
Intuitive is still posting impressive numbers. In its solid fourth quarter, it reported worldwide procedures up 18% year over year and 532 da Vinci systems installed (up from 493 a year prior). Revenue was up 19% year over year. Check out the stock's performance, too:
|
Time Period |
Average Annual Return |
|---|---|
|
Past 1 year |
(16.88%) |
|
Past 3 years |
26.39% |
|
Past 5 years |
13.52% |
|
Past 10 years |
23.86% |
|
Past 15 years |
18.78% |
Source: Data from Morningstar.com as of Feb. 10, 2026.
The company is growing not only by adding machines, but also by expanding their use. The da Vinci 5 system, for example, was recently approved for certain cardiac procedures.
Applying AI to surgery
Intuitive is sitting on a wealth of data from more than 10 million procedures that have been performed with its systems, and it's using AI to draw insights from that data that can improve the system even more. With respect to the Ion system, Intuitive notes that:
Ion's latest AI-powered enhanced navigation builds on its existing strengths to address a key challenge in lung biopsy known as CT-to-body divergence -- when a lung nodule is in a different location ... Ion will now use AI to help correct this in real time.
Time to buy?
If you're itching to invest in Intuitive Surgical right now, perhaps hold off because this growth stock is not exactly cheap, though it is priced lower right now than it was last year. Opinions will vary, but at best, it's fairly valued. So you might wait for a pullback, invest in the company incrementally, or just jump in as long as you plan to hang on for many years through downturns and upturns.
Should you buy stock in Intuitive Surgical right now?
Before you buy stock in Intuitive Surgical, consider this:
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Selena Maranjian has positions in Intuitive Surgical. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Intuitive Surgical. The Motley Fool recommends the following options: long January 2028 $520 calls on Intuitive Surgical and short January 2028 $530 calls on Intuitive Surgical. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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