Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) Is Considered a Good Investment by Brokers: Is That True?

Group 1 - The average brokerage recommendation (ABR) for Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (ISRG) is 1.69, indicating a consensus between Strong Buy and Buy based on 26 brokerage firms' recommendations [1] - Out of the 26 recommendations, 16 are Strong Buy (61.5%) and 2 are Buy (7.7%) [1] - Brokerage recommendations may not effectively guide investors due to analysts' inherent bias, with firms assigning five Strong Buy recommendations for every Strong Sell [2][3] Group 2 - The Zacks Rank, a proprietary stock rating tool, categorizes stocks from Zacks Rank 1 (Strong Buy) to Zacks Rank 5 (Strong Sell) and is based on earnings estimate revisions [3][4] - The Zacks Rank is more reliable than ABR as it reflects timely changes in earnings estimates, which are strongly correlated with near-term stock price movements [5][6] - For Intuitive Surgical, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for the current year has increased by 3.9% to $6.86, leading to a Zacks Rank 2 (Buy) [7]