What happened Shares of robotic surgery specialist Intuitive Surgical (NASDAQ: ISRG) jumped Wednesday in response to new guidance the company issued for its fiscal fourth-quarter and full-year 2020 sales. The stock is up 2.8% as of 2:40 p.m. EST. So what Although official earnings results aren't due out until Jan. 21, Intuitive has a good enough handle on the numbers already to be able to report that its Q4 sales were about $1.33 billion, or 4% better than reported one year ago. With procedure volumes and deliveries of da Vinci systems depressed by the pandemic, full-year sales are going to be down -- about 3% lower than in 2019 at $4.36 billion. Nevertheless, TheFly.com notes that both these numbers are ahead of consensus, and that's probably why investors are responding positively to what would otherwise seem rather disappointing numbers. For Q4, says TheFly, analysts had been predicting sales would be only $1.23 billion, while for all of 2020, sales were expected to be only $4.27 billion. Image source: Getty Images. Now what Intuitive Surgical did not tell investors what kinds of earnings to expect. But for what it's worth, analysts had been forecasting earnings down about 11% for the quarter at $3.09 per share, and down a much steeper 24% at $9.66 for the year. Based on Intuitive's confirmation that sales were better than expected, however, you can probably assume that earnings will beat those estimates as well. And if that happens -- fingers crossed -- come Jan. 21, there's good reason to expect Intuitive Surgical stock to pop at least once more. 10 stocks we like better than Intuitive SurgicalWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.* David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the ten best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Intuitive Surgical wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. See the 10 stocks *Stock Advisor returns as of November 20, 2020 Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Intuitive Surgical and recommends the following options: long January 2022 $580 calls on Intuitive Surgical and short January 2022 $600 calls on Intuitive Surgical. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.Source