2 Growth Stocks to Buy in November Without Any Hesitation

Eli Lilly reported Q3 revenue growth of 39% year over year to $24.4 billion, supported by rising GLP-1 sales and a broad pipeline; the article argues growth could continue despite competition. Intuitive Surgical’s Q3 revenue rose 22% to $3.05 billion as da Vinci procedures increased 14%, but weaker-than-expected procedure guidance, margin pressure, and competition weighed on shares. The article sees long-term potential in the underpenetrated robotic-surgery market and notes management expects regulatory clearance for telesurgery in the first half of 2028.

Analysis

The key distinction is between LLY’s near-term earnings engine and ISRG’s longer-dated adoption option. For LLY, label expansion can broaden demand, but it also raises the bar for manufacturing capacity and payer economics: incremental prescriptions only translate into durable earnings if supply, realized pricing, and persistence hold up as competition increases. The risk is not simply slower growth; if expectations are built around continued exceptional growth, even strong absolute results could compress the multiple. Treat pipeline candidates as optionality, not base-case earnings, until efficacy and commercial access are established.

ISRG’s selloff may be an expectations reset rather than evidence that the installed-base model is broken. The second-order test is whether procedure growth and system placements support recurring instrument/service economics while da Vinci 5 adoption weighs on near-term margins. Medtronic and Johnson & Johnson add a procurement lever for hospitals: credible alternatives could pressure pricing and lengthen purchasing decisions before materially displacing ISRG. The large unroboticized procedure pool is not automatically addressable revenue; training, capital budgets, clinical evidence, and regulatory clearance constrain conversion. Telesurgery is a distant catalyst, not a 1–3 month valuation anchor.

Near term, favor verification over chasing either narrative. Over 1–3 months, procedure guidance, placements, margins, LLY supply and realized pricing are the key estimate drivers. Over 6–18 months, adoption and competitive economics matter; telesurgery remains a longer-horizon option. The bullish thesis is falsified by sustained procedure-growth deterioration or margin erosion at ISRG, or by LLY growth/access weakening enough to force guidance cuts.

Key Decisions for Investors

• LLY: Avoid adding solely on the growth narrative after a strong run. Consider staged exposure on a pullback only if subsequent disclosures support supply growth, realized pricing, and continued demand; reassess on guidance cuts or evidence that payer access is constraining uptake.
• ISRG: Treat the post-results weakness as a watchlist entry, not an automatic dip-buy. Revisit after the next operating update; require procedure growth and system placements to stabilize and da Vinci 5-related margin pressure to become more measurable before sizing a long.
• Track ISRG’s competitive indicators over the next 1–3 months: hospital placements, procedure growth, and any evidence that Medtronic or Johnson & Johnson is changing purchasing decisions or pricing. If substitution is visible alongside slowing procedures, the long-term underpenetration argument is insufficient protection.
• Do not capitalize telesurgery as a near-term catalyst: verify the regulatory pathway and timing as it develops, and treat any delay or narrower-than-expected clearance as a reason to remove that option value from the thesis.