Intuit Results Top Guidance on Strong Tax Season, QuickBooks Growth

By Josh Beckerman 

Intuit Inc., the maker of TurboTax, reported revenue and earnings excluding items above its guidance for the April quarter, reflecting a strong tax season and growth in its small-business operations.

For the current quarter, the company expects a loss excluding items of 10 cents to 12 cents a share on revenue of $720 million to $745 million. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect a loss excluding items of five cents a share on revenue of $728 million.

Intuit said on April 21 that TurboTax posted a strong tax season, including 13% growth in TurboTax Online federal units.

In February, Intuit suspended the transmission of e-filed state tax returns for about 24 hours following a surge of fraudulent claims for refunds. The false filings typically used information from 2013 tax returns. There were also reports of fraudulent federal returns, although federal e-filing wasn't halted. Intuit resumed state tax filings after enhancing security measures.

In March, Intuit said the U.S. Justice Department formally requested information from the company and said the Federal Trade Commission also contacted the company.

The company said Thursday that a strong performance in its small-business segment included 55% growth in the number of QuickBooks Online subscribers.

In after-hours trading, Intuit shares were up 1.3% to $105.50.

Intuit, known for TurboTax, Quicken and QuickBooks, has diversified through acquisitions including mobile payment provider Check, document service DocStoc and tax-return helper GoodApril.

Intuit said in August that a move toward subscriptions and changes in desktop-product development would result in recognition of desktop revenue over time, instead of the upfront license revenue it previously recorded. Intuit said this would lead to a "transition year" for fiscal 2015, with about $400 million of revenue pushed into deferred revenue, and said it expected double-digit revenue growth starting in fiscal 2016.

For the quarter ended April 30, Intuit reported a profit of $501 million, or $1.78 a share, compared with a year-earlier profit of $984 million, or $3.39 a share. Excluding stock-based compensation and other items, earnings fell to $2.85 a share from $3.53. Revenue fell 8% to $2.19 billion.

Intuit had projected per-share earnings of $2.70 to $2.75 and revenue of $2.075 billion to $2.15 billion.

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