Company: ISRG
Filing Date: 2025-04-23
Form Type: 10-Q
Source: 0001035267-25-000109
Chunk: 63

Company: INTUITIVE SURGICAL INC
Filing Date: 2025-04-23
Form: 10-Q
Item: Item 1
Chunk 63
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 compared to $284.5 million for the three months ended March 31, 2024. The increase in research and development expenses for the three months ended March 31, 2025, was primarily driven by higher headcount and personnel-related expenses, including share-based compensation expense, and other project costs incurred to support a broad set of product development initiatives.

Research and development expenses for the three months ended March 31, 2025, and 2024, included share-based compensation expense of $69.0 million and $57.7 million, respectively, and intangible asset-related charges of $5.6 million and $0.5 million, respectively.

Research and development expenses fluctuate with project timing. Based upon our broader set of product development initiatives and the stage of the underlying projects, we expect to continue to make substantial investments in research and development and anticipate that research and development expenses will continue to increase in the future.

Interest and Other Income, Net

Interest and other income, net, for the three months ended March 31, 2025, increased by 31% to $90.4 million, compared to $69.1 million for the three months ended March 31, 2024. The increase in interest and other income, net, for the three months ended March 31, 2025, was primarily driven by higher average cash and investment balances and higher average interest rates.

Income Tax Benefit

Income tax benefit for the three months ended March 31, 2025, was $35.2 million, or 5.3% of income before taxes, compared to $8.9 million, or 1.7% of income before taxes, for the three months ended March 31, 2024.

Our higher income tax benefit (lower effective tax rate) for the three months ended March 31, 2025, compared to the three months ended March 31, 2024, was primarily due to higher excess tax benefits, as discussed below, higher federal research and development credit benefits, and lower U.S. taxes on foreign earnings.

Our provision for income taxes for the three months ended March 31, 2025, and 2024, included excess tax benefits associated with employee equity plans of $145.4 million and $111.1 million, respectively, which reduced our effective tax rate by 21.8 and 20.6 percentage points, respectively. The amount of excess tax benefits or deficiencies will fluctuate from period to period based on