Intuit Upgraded to “Buy” by Citigroup Inc. (INTU)

Shane Hupp for Ticket Report writes:  Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU) was upgraded by equities research analysts at Citigroup Inc. from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday,TheFlyOnTheWall.com reports. The firm currently has a $94.00 target price on the stock, up from their previous target price of $75.00. Citigroup Inc.’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 20.28% from the stock’s previous close.

Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU) opened at 78.15 on Monday. Intuit has a 52-week low of $55.54 and a 52-week high of $81.21. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $74.20 and its 200-day moving average is $70.93. The company has a market cap of $22.141 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.41.

Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU) last released its earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The company reported $0.02 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the analysts’ consensus estimate of $0.14 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $782.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $778.88 million. Analysts expect that Intuit will post $3.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which is scheduled for Friday, April 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.19 per share. This represents a $0.76 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.97%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 8th.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Analysts at Jefferson Research upgraded shares of Intuit from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday. Separately, analysts at Jefferies Group raised their price target on shares of Intuit from $73.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Friday, February 21st. They now have a “hold” rating on the stock. Finally, analysts atZacks downgraded shares of Intuit from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. They now have a $71.40 price target on the stock. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Intuit presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $74.85.

In other Intuit news, CEO Brad Smith sold 100,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $77.73, for a total value of $7,773,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 224,640 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,461,267. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link.

Intuit Inc (NASDAQ:INTU) is a provider of business and financial management solutions for small businesses, consumers, accounting professionals and financial institutions.