Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ: ISRG) stock is rallying following its third-quarter 2022 earnings update. It's not that it was a particularly good report (it was decent), nor is it because the stock has become cheap thanks to the bear market this year (shares trade for 79 times free cash flow and 61 times earnings per share).  

Rather, Intuitive seems to be back on the rise because management shelled out a substantial amount of cash for stock buybacks last quarter. This is still a growth business, one that continues to deal with effects from the pandemic, but Intuitive Surgical is growing up. 

Intuitive Surgical's revenue increased 11% year over year to $1.56 billion in Q3 2022. This consisted primarily of a 9% decrease in da Vinci robotic-assisted surgery system placements (305 this past quarter, versus 336 in the same period of 2021), offset by a 20% increase in the number of procedures performed.  

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Source Fool.com