Financial software firm Intuit late Tuesday easily beat Wall Street's targets for its fiscal fourth quarter. Intuit stock jumped in extended trading after the company gave strong sales guidance for the current fiscal year.
The Mountain View, Calif.-based company earned an adjusted $1.10 a share on sales of $2.41 billion in the quarter ended July 31. Analysts polled by FactSet expected Intuit earnings of 98 cents a share on sales of $2.34 billion.
On a year-over-year basis, Intuit earnings dropped 44% while sales declined 6%. Intuit faced difficult comparisons with the year-ago period, which got a boost from the delayed federal tax-filing deadline.
Intuit makes TurboTax tax-preparation software and QuickBooks small-business accounting software. It also offers Mint, Credit Karma and Mailchimp products.
Intuit Stock Jumps Late
For the current quarter ending Oct. 31, Intuit forecast adjusted earnings of $1.17 a share on sales of $2.5 billion, based on the midpoint of its outlook. That missed Wall Street's targets of $1.86 a share in earnings on sales of $2.54 billion in the fiscal first quarter.
However, for the full fiscal year Intuit expects to earn an adjusted $13.74 a share on sales of $14.59 billion. Analysts were predicting earnings of $13.76 a share on sales of $14.51 billion.
In the just-finished fiscal year, Intuit earned an adjusted $11.85 a share, up 22%, on sales of $12.73 billion, up 32%.
In after-hours trading on the stock market today, Intuit stock popped 5% higher to 472. During the regular session Tuesday, Intuit stock climbed 0.8% to close at 449.56.
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Intuit Stock Ranks Third In Group
"Our platform and offerings are mission-critical for consumers and small businesses," Chief Executive Sasan Goodarzi said in a news release. "And we are proud that Intuit is the platform of choice for over 100 million customers around the world."
Intuit stock ranks third out of 40 stocks in IBD's Computer Software-Financial industry group, according to IBD Stock Checkup. It has an IBD Composite Rating of 83 out of 99.
Intuit stock has a middling IBD Relative Strength Rating of 59 out of 99. That means it has outperformed 59% of stocks over the past 12 months.
Follow Patrick Seitz on Twitter at @IBD_PSeitz for more stories on consumer technology, software and semiconductor stocks.
