DOUG TSURUOKA, INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY writes: Shares of Intuit (INTU) were up 1% in midday trading in the stock market Wednesday, a day after the maker of TurboTax and Quicken accounting software posted fiscal fourth-quarter adjusted earnings that were in line with Wall Street forecasts. Sales beat estimates, but the company late Tuesday issued mixed guidance for the current quarter. It also raised its quarterly cash dividend from 17 cents per share to 19 cents, to be paid on Oct. 18.
Excluding options expenses and other one-time charges, Mountain View, Calif.-based Intuit said it broke even for its fiscal Q4 ended July 31, vs. a penny loss in the year-earlier quarter. This matched the consensus view of 20 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.
On a GAAP basis, the company said it lost 5 cents a share vs. a penny profit. Analysts had expected a 12-cent loss on a GAAP basis.
Revenue rose 12% to $634 million, beating views of $622 million.
In the current quarter, the company sees sales of $595 million to $605 million, falling short of an analyst forecast for $619 million. Non-GAAP adjusted EPS is expected to fall between a loss of 10 cents and 11 cents, wider than a loss of 3 cents expected by analysts.
"Our revenue and operating income were fine in Q4 and we had a very strong year in our small-business segment, and all of our subscription businesses did very well through the end of the fourth quarter," CFO Neil Williams told IBD in an interview.
He said the downside was Intuit's consumer tax business, which he said reflected a decline in the total number of tax filers.
Williams says the company is responding to its challenges by issuing new small-business products such as an easier-to-use version of QuickBooks Online, set to be released in a few weeks.
He says the company also will be releasing new accounting solutions for small businesses, and starting new global initiatives. "So new version of QuickBooks Online, new accounting solutions and global, we think, are the three big drivers for fiscal 2014," Williams said.
The CFO says more details about its fiscal 2014 strategy will be given at the annual Intuit investor day, set for Sept. 24.
Intuit has been restructuring to focus on its core businesses. Its shares took their worst fall in a decade in late April after CEO Brad Smith said the company was lowering its revenue guidance for fiscal Q3 and fiscal 2014, to reflect weakness in its consumer tax business.
On Aug. 1, Intuit again lowered its current-quarter and full-year outlook based on the divestiture of its Intuit Financial Services and Intuit Health businesses, completed in fiscal Q4.
Williams says some analysts did not update their estimates to show the new guidance and the exclusion of revenue from the company's former financial services and health units.
Intuit's updated guidance for fiscal 2014 ending July 31, 2014, is for revenue of $4.44 billion to $4.525 billion, or growth of 6% to 8%. It expects EPS ex items of $3.52 to $3.60, up 10% to 13%.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters are expecting fiscal 2014 revenue of $4.5 billion and adjusted EPS of $3.55 a share.
0 comments:
Post a Comment