Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ:ISRG), is set to release the earnings numbers on 22. The company has had a spate of bad of expectations not being met and has been punished severely for the same. Despite having seen a healthy rate of revenue growth as well as smart margins, it has not lived up to the expectations of the market. The stock has lost 49% in the past quarter and nearly 62% from a year ago. If we were to look at some technicals, we can reflect that it is possibly a good time to accumulate the stock given its revenue growth that it has been witnessing and also reaching a more reasonable price earnings ratio at 20 currently.

On January 7^th, Intuitive Surgical reported lower-than-expected preliminary fourth-quarter revenue, and also forecast 2009 revenue below Wall Street expectations, sending its shares crashing as much as 18 percent after the bell. While both accessory and service revenue for its robotic surgical systems increased by about 45 percent, sales of its main products such as the     Da Vinci systems rose by only 5 percent. "Our system sales in the quarter reflect the challenging global economic and financial market environment," Chief Executive Lonnie Smith said.

Similar, to Jan 7^th the stock had witnessed a similar beating in mid-November due to analyst comments. First, analysts at Wachovia issued a research note earlier saying that capital spending within the hospital industry has further deteriorated. Secondly, William Blair downgraded shares of Intuitive Surgical from Outperform to Market Perform.

A notable event for the company is the agreement it signed yesterday with SurgiQuest, a development and supply agreement. SurgiQuest will develop a disposable access system using AirSeal(TM) technology for use with Intuitive's laparoscopic surgical robot. In another event, Novadaq® Technologies Inc. (TSX:NDQ), announced its multi-year technology alliance with Intuitive Surgical Inc. Novadaq is a developer of real-time medical imaging systems and image guided therapies for the operating room. In the fourth quarter of 2007, the two companies began exploring the use of Novadaq's patented SPY® fluorescence imaging technology during minimally invasive surgical robotic procedures to potentially enable surgeons to visualize blood flow in vessels, tissue perfusion, tumors, tumor margins, and the lymphatic system in real-time. That collaboration has now resulted in the signing of two multi-year agreements between the companies.

Disclosure: The author does not own any of the stocks mentioned above.