Analysts Call For New Highs From Intuitive Surgical

Nightstar Therapeutics also received bullish attention

Intuitive Surgical, Inc. (NASDAQ:ISRG) has been a long-term outperformer on the charts, but it wasn't able to dodge yesterday's huge market sell-off, losing 3.6% for its lowest close since late July. This extended the shares' recent pullback following their all-time high of $581.12 from Oct. 1. Today, ISRG stock has dipped another 1.4% to trade at $505.14, despite a bullish analyst note.

Early this morning Morgan Stanley lifted its price target on the robotic surgery specialist to $600 from $575, above the average analyst price target of $578.07. Moreover, there are 15 brokerage firms in coverage on Intuitive Surgical, and only two have anything less than a "buy" rating. Looking ahead, the company will release earnings after the close on Thursday, Oct. 18, and last quarter the shares gained after earnings.

Turning to gene therapy stock Nightstar Therapeutics PLC (NASDAQ:NITE), Cantor Fitzgerald last night initiated coverage with an "overweight" rating and $36 price target. This is more than double the equity's Wednesday close of $15.03 -- the lowest since June -- and comes in just above the average analyst price target of $34.50.

NITE shares have been extremely weak recently, pulling back hard from their Sept. 20 peak of $29.55, and are down 2.5% to trade at $14.65 today. This puts the stock right near where it churned on the charts from late February to mid-June. Analysts remain very bullish, with all eight handing out "buy" or "strong buy" ratings.