Sifting through countless of stocks in the Health Care Equipment & Supplies industry can be tedious, and sometimes two stocks are just too similar to judge which is the better investment. If you’re on the fence about investing in Intuitive Surgical, Inc. or Smith & Nephew plc because you’re not sure how they measure up, it’s important to compare them on a few factors before making your decision.

Read on to learn how Intuitive Surgical, Inc. and Smith & Nephew plc compare based on key financial metrics to determine which better meets your investment needs.

About Intuitive Surgical, Inc. and Smith & Nephew plc

Intuitive Surgical, Inc. develops, manufactures, and markets products that enable physicians and healthcare providers to enhance the quality of and access to minimally invasive care in the United States and internationally. It offers the da Vinci Surgical System that enables surgical procedures using a minimally invasive approach; and Ion endoluminal system, which extends its commercial offerings beyond surgery into diagnostic endoluminal procedures enabling minimally invasive biopsies in the lung. The company also provides a suite of stapling, energy, and core instrumentation for its multi-port da Vinci surgical systems; progressive learning pathways to support the use of its technology; infrastructure of customer service and support specialists, a complement of services to its customers, including installation, repair, maintenance, 24/7 technical support, and proactive system health monitoring; and integrated digital capabilities providing connected offerings, streamlining performance for hospitals with program-enhancing insights. It sells its products through direct sales organizations, such as capital and clinical sales teams. Intuitive Surgical, Inc. was incorporated in 1995 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.

Smith & Nephew plc, together with its subsidiaries, develops, manufactures, markets, and sells medical devices and services in the United Kingdom, the United States, and internationally. The company operates in three segments: Orthopaedics, Sports Medicine & ENT, and Advanced Wound Management. It offers knee implant products for knee replacement procedures; hip implants for revision procedures; trauma and extremities products that include internal and external devices used in the stabilization of severe fractures and deformity correction procedures; and other reconstruction products. The company also provides sports medicine joint repair products comprise instruments, technologies, and implants to perform minimally invasive surgery, as well as treating soft tissue injuries and degenerative conditions of the shoulder, knee, hip, and small joints. In addition, it provides arthroscopic enabling technologies comprising fluid management equipment for surgical access, cameras, digital image capture, scopes, light sources, and monitors to assist with visualization inside the joints, radio frequency, electromechanical and mechanical tissue resection devices, and hand instruments for removing damaged tissue; and ear, nose, and throat solutions. Further, the company offers advanced wound care products for the treatment and prevention of acute and chronic wounds, leg, diabetic and pressure ulcers, burns, and post-operative wounds; advanced wound bioactives, such as biologics and other bioactive technologies for debridement and dermal repair/regeneration, and regenerative medicine products, including skin, bone graft, and articular cartilage substitutes; and advanced wound devices, such as traditional and single-use negative pressure wound therapy, and hydrosurgery systems. It serves the healthcare providers. Smith & Nephew plc was founded in 1856 and is headquartered in Watford, the United Kingdom.

Latest Health Care Equipment & Supplies and Intuitive Surgical, Inc., Smith & Nephew plc Stock News

As of June 5, 2026, Intuitive Surgical, Inc. had a $149.5 billion market capitalization, compared to the Health Care Equipment & Supplies median of $353.7 million. Intuitive Surgical, Inc.’s stock is down 25.5% in 2026, down 0.6% in the previous five trading days and down 24.36% in the past year.

Currently, Intuitive Surgical, Inc.’s price-earnings ratio is 51.3. Intuitive Surgical, Inc.’s trailing 12-month revenue is $10.6 billion with a 28.2% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 23.0%. Analysts expect adjusted earnings to reach $10.416 per share for the current fiscal year. Intuitive Surgical, Inc. does not currently pay a dividend.

As of June 5, 2026, Smith & Nephew plc had a $13.2 billion market cap, putting it in the 81st percentile of all stocks. Smith & Nephew plc’s stock is down 6.7% in 2026, up 3.1% in the previous five trading days and up 4.58% in the past year.

Currently, Smith & Nephew plc’s price-earnings ratio is 42.8. Smith & Nephew plc’s trailing 12-month revenue is $6.2 billion with a 10.1% net profit margin. Year-over-year quarterly sales growth most recently was 7.4%. There are no analysts providing consensus earnings estimates for the current fiscal year. Smith & Nephew plc currently has a 3.1% dividend yield.

How We Compare Intuitive Surgical, Inc. and Smith & Nephew plc Stock Grades

Stock evaluation requires access to huge amounts of data and the knowledge and time to sift through it all, make sense of financial ratios, read income statements and analyze recent stock movements. AAII created A+ Investor, a robust data suite that condenses data research in an actionable and customizable way suitable for investors of all knowledge levels, to help investors streamline and work through such data.

AAII’s proprietary stock grades come with A+ Investor. These offer intuitive A‐F grades for each of five key investing factors: value, growth, momentum, earnings estimate revisions and quality. Here, we’ll take a closer look at Intuitive Surgical, Inc. and Smith & Nephew plc’s stock grades to see how they measure up against one another.

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Intuitive Surgical, Inc. and Smith & Nephew plc Stock Value Grades

Company	Ticker	Value
Intuitive Surgical, Inc.	ISRG	F
Smith & Nephew plc	SNN	D

Successful stock investing involves buying low and selling high, so stock valuation is an important consideration for stock selection.

Buying stocks that are going to go up typically means buying stocks that are undervalued in the first place, although momentum investors may argue that point.

AAII’s A+ Investor Value Grade derives from a stock’s value score. The Value Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of the price-to-sales ratio, price-earnings ratio, enterprise-value-to-EBITDA (EV/EBITDA) ratio, shareholder yield, price-to-book-value ratio and price-to-free-cash-flow ratio. The score is variable, meaning it can consider all six ratios or, should any of the six ratios not be valid, the remaining ratios that are valid. To be assigned a Value Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) ratio and corresponding ranking for at least two of the six valuation ratios.

Stocks with a Value Score from 81 to 100 are considered deep value, those with a score between 61 and 80 are a good value and so on.

Intuitive Surgical, Inc. has a Value Score of 9, which is Ultra Expensive. Smith & Nephew plc has a Value Score of 28, which is Expensive.

The Value Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither Intuitive Surgical, Inc. or Smith & Nephew plc has a high enough value grade to be considered a “winner.” Investors who are considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolio. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if Intuitive Surgical, Inc. or Smith & Nephew plc is the better investment when it comes to value.

Intuitive Surgical, Inc. and Smith & Nephew plc’s Quality Grades

Company	Ticker	Quality
Intuitive Surgical, Inc.	ISRG	A
Smith & Nephew plc	SNN	A

Like the Value Grade, AAII’s A+ Investor Quality Grade comes from the percentile rank of key metrics. Specifically, the Quality Score is the percentile rank of the average of the percentile ranks of return on assets (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), gross profit relative to assets, buyback yield, change in total liabilities to assets, accruals, Z double prime bankruptcy risk (Z) score and the F-Score.

The score is variable, meaning it can consider all eight measures or, should any of the eight measures not be valid, the remaining measures that are valid. To be assigned a Quality Score, stocks must have a valid (non-null) measure and corresponding ranking for at least four of the eight quality measures.

The Quality Score is used to assess the underlying “quality” of a particular stock. A higher-quality stock possesses traits associated with upside potential and reduced downside risk. Backtesting of the Quality Grade shows that stocks with higher grades, on average, outperformed stocks with lower grades over the period of 1998 through 2019.

Stocks receive better grades (higher scores) for having higher scores for the quality subcomponents and worse grades (lower scores) for lower scores for the subcomponents.

Intuitive Surgical, Inc. has a Quality Score of 90, which is Very Strong. Smith & Nephew plc has a Quality Score of 95, which is Very Strong.

The Quality Grade Winner: It’s a Tie!

Looking at the Quality Grade breakdown above, both Intuitive Surgical, Inc. and Smith & Nephew plc have a grade of A. For investors who focus solely on a company’s overall quality, you will need to conduct further research into both companies to see if they are a good fit for your portfolio. As a good rule of thumb, you should always analyze multiple factors based on a wide range of metrics before choosing a company to invest in.

Intuitive Surgical, Inc. and Smith & Nephew plc’s Momentum Grades

Company	Ticker	Momentum
Intuitive Surgical, Inc.	ISRG	D
Smith & Nephew plc	SNN	D

Momentum grades help to uncover stocks experiencing anomalously high rates of return; research finds that stocks with high relative levels of momentum tend to outperform, whereas those with low levels of momentum tend to continue underperforming. Momentum is based on the price change of a stock over a specified period relative to all other stocks.

Typically, AAII looks at the weighted relative strength over the trailing four quarters. The weighted four-quarter relative strength rank is the relative price change for each of the past four quarters. The most recent quarterly price change is given a weight of 40% and each of the three previous quarters are given a weighting of 20%.

Intuitive Surgical, Inc. has a Momentum Score of 21, which is Weak. Smith & Nephew plc has a Momentum Score of 37, which is Weak.

The Momentum Stock Winner: No Clear Winner

Neither Intuitive Surgical, Inc. or Smith & Nephew plc has a strong enough Momentum Grade to be considered a “winner.” Investors considering these companies should do additional due diligence and research to see if either could be a good addition to their portfolios. It’s important to look at a wide range of financial metrics in order to determine if Intuitive Surgical, Inc. or Smith & Nephew plc is the better investment when it comes to momentum.

Other Intuitive Surgical, Inc. and Smith & Nephew plc Grades

In addition to Quality, Value and Momentum, A+ Investor also provides grades for Growth and Estimate Revisions.

Earnings estimate revisions scores take into account the magnitude of a company’s earnings surprise in its last two reported fiscal quarters. Often, surprises beget further surprises‐or at least continued sales growth (the exact opposite is generally true, too).

Growth investing builds on the idea that stocks of companies exhibiting strong, consistent and prolonged growth outperform those of slower-growth companies. AAII measures growth through consistency of annual sales growth, five-year sales growth rankings adjusted for extreme levels, and consistency of positive annual cash from operations.

These 2 key factors, when combined with the above, provide a holistic view into a particular stock. Further, by joining A+ Investor you can see whether Intuitive Surgical, Inc. and Smith & Nephew plc pass any of our 60+ stock screens that have outperformed the market since their creation.

So, Which Is the Better Investment, Intuitive Surgical, Inc. or Smith & Nephew plc Stock?

Overall, Intuitive Surgical, Inc. stock has a Value Score of 9, Momentum Score of 21 and Quality Score of 90.

Smith & Nephew plc stock has a Value Score of 28, Momentum Score of 37 and Quality Score of 95.

Comparing Intuitive Surgical, Inc. and Smith & Nephew plc’s grades, scores and metrics can act as a solid basis to determine whether they may be a good investment or not. You’ll also want to look at your portfolio’s asset allocation as well as your risk tolerance and financial goals to see if either of these stocks would make a good fit for you. AAII can help you figure out which investments align with your individual needs and preferences.

Investors are encouraged to do their own due diligence and research. In this way, individuals can effectively become managers of their own assets‐without having to rely on others for financial independence. You can count on AAII for timeless articles on financial planning and stock-picking, unbiased research and actionable analysis.

A+ Investor adds to our qualitative teaching with a powerful data suite to help you whittle down investment choices to find stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) or mutual funds that meet your needs.

AAII Disclaimer

We make no representations or warranties that any investor will, or is likely to, achieve profits similar to those shown, because past, hypothetical or simulated performance is not necessarily indicative of future results. Before making an investment decision, you should consider your circumstances and whether the information on our content is applicable to your situation. This information was prepared in good faith, and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions. The full disclaimer can be read here.