Insider Selling: Intuit Insider Unloads 75,000 Shares of Intuit Stock (INTU)

Earlier in the week we had some fun posting the following, "I just watched the film, "The Counselor" which had a great line, "That this is some sort of coincidence. Because they don't really believe in coincidences. They've heard of them. They've just never seen one."   No, we also don't believe in conspiracies....however it's kind of fun to read what some are thinking, no?  Who knows, maybe this fellow is onto something....exactly what we're not quite sure.....and on that note enjoy the writings of Markus Aarnio who for SeekingAlpha writes: Intuit: 5 Different Insiders Have Sold Shares During The Last 30 Days.  The idea being was it time to "short" INTU.   

Well just days later to add more fuel to the fire we learn of another insider selling, as  Masoud Bidgoli  for MidEast Times writes: Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU) Director Johnson Suzanne M. Nora unloaded 75,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $78.91, for a total value of $5,918,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 15,737 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,241,807. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link.

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on INTU shares. Analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Intuit in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. They now have a $84.00 price target on the stock, up previously from $77.00. Separately, analysts at Morgan Stanley reiterated an “underweight” rating on shares of Intuit in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. They now have a $66.00 price target on the stock. Finally, analysts at Goldman Sachs raised their price target on shares of Intuit to $80.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 21st. They now have a “neutral” rating on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $78.23.

Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU) traded up 0.10% during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $78.99. The stock had a trading volume of 1,006,449 shares. Intuit has a one year low of $56.74 and a one year high of $82.40. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $77.02 and a 200-day moving average of $76.13. The company has a market cap of $22.424 billion and a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.19. Intuit also saw a significant decrease in short interest in the month of May. As of May 30th, there was short interest totalling 7,148,697 shares, a decrease of 22.2% from the May 15th total of 9,193,581 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 2,077,041 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.4 days. Approximately 2.6% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, May 20th. The company reported $3.53 EPS for the quarter, beating the Thomson Reuters consensus estimate of $3.50 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $2.39 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.38 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.97 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 14.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Intuit will post $3.58 EPS for the current fiscal year.

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which is scheduled for Friday, July 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be given a dividend of $0.19 per share. This represents a $0.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, July 8th.

5 Strategies for Selecting Business Accounting Software

Roxana Boenig forGoArticles writes: the old days, maintaining the books for any business meant recording figures in the paper ledger. Any longer. Today, businesses of all sizes use accounting software to track their revenue, and also to forecast sales and manage inventory.

Business accounting software greatly cuts down on the prospect of human error that comes with accounting in some recoverable format, this means you will assist you to access details within a few keystrokes.

However with a lot of options available, finding the right accounting software for ones business can be hard. Here are five tips to help you find the software that can best serve the requirements of your small business.

1. Consider both your needs as well as your accounting skills The best option for getting the proper accounting software programs are to look at that your business operates, and after that take careful stock with the a variety of software available on the market. If the business makes into the millions dollars a year, it's going to have different accounting needs than the usual that creates under $50,000. There is a number of options when considering accounting software products, including those specifically designed for small- and medium-sized businesses.

Dependant upon your industry, you might like to consider specialized software that is certainly built to help businesses as part of your niche. For instance, you will find applications customized for businesses from the manufacturing sector, for retailers and restaurants, along with many other forms of commercial enterprises.

Doing research is important, since the application you choose will directly impact the way your revenue is managed. It is additionally important to consider that though accounting software will make the project of keeping books easier, still needs a certain quantity of economic literacy. As sophisticated as a possible application could be, it is still a tool. Those with all the software must know how to deal with it.

2. Check out cloud applications With cloud-computing becoming a more prominent influence in modern business, it is necessary never to dismiss the various online accounting applications available.

Cloud applications include a number of benefits. They might be accessed from the location having a strong Connection to the web, and you don't must purchase software licenses or servers to run them. Setting up upgrades and patches is performed about the server end, so that you and also your IT staff don't worried about keeping the software up to date. And, cloud applications might be accessed utilizing a tablet, laptop or smartphone. Furthermore, your records are kept secure for a data center not even close to the place of business of your respective business; this ensures their safety in the eventuality of a local disaster and other destructive event.

Another twist on cloud accounting: Some cloud-based business management softwares (like LivePlan) are integrated with traditional, harddrive-stored accounting software (like QuickBooks for Windows). Therefore the ability to access your financial information from anywhere by having an internet connection (in lieu of only seeing it inside your office) is irresistible to you, nevertheless the accounting software that suits you best isn't like a cloud service, look into cloud-based business applications that provide integration with all the accounting software you want.

3. Keep the budget in mind There may be business accounting software accessible to suit all budgets. General applications for just a broader user base can be downloaded free or bought out of the box at a discount. However, the greater specialized the software is, the more costly it gets, as the member list for specialized software programs are usually relatively small. If you want something specific on your industry or customized to your company, you will be willing to pay limited.

4. Focus on add-on features Add-ons bring extra functionality with a business accounting application. For example, they might allow you to access the software remotely, accept payments online, and integrate the accounting software together with your ecommerce software. Additionally, there are add-ons that will make accounting software compatible with tax filling software.

5. Make the decision with the aid of an accountant An accountant may prefer that you select a credit application which is suitable for the ones she uses. Look at differs from the others; an accountant influences best position to make available an educated opinion about which one is most beneficial selection for your specific enterprise. An accountant could even have the capacity to enable you to put in place the program you select.

Whichever business accounting software you ultimately choose, bear in mind you aren't devoted to it forever, as most software provides for some form of conversion. Still, the decision shouldn't be manufactured lightly. You certainly don't should make dedication to at least one application and investing time into it, only to find you need to switch the signal from one more a few months later.

4 Types of Accounting Products for Small and Medium Business: Which One’s for You?

Chris Sibbet for eHads writes: Choosing the right accounting software for your small or medium business can be overwhelming if you don’t have a finance or technical background. Before you dive into the excitement of automating all your financial reports with one click, know that it won’t happen. These software will automate a lot of financial and business processes but you still need to understand the nitty-gritty of financial reporting to understand which product suits you.

So go and brush up your financial basics. It’s like learning to drive manual first before going for automatic transmission. In the meantime, it’s a good idea to get the big picture of what’s out there before deciding which accounting software product to buy soon. Here are four general types that are marketed today:

1. Payroll and accounting

These are one of the most popular accounting software that you can buy off the shelf or download online and install right in your desktop computer. They’re targeted at small and medium businesses.

The software products provide basic accounting tools and reports to create financial documents, saving you the time to compute data and write them in logical statements. Names like QuickBooks (Intuit), Simplify Accounting (Sage), and Denali (Cougar Mountain) are the more popular products in this category.

Many of them share the same ease-of-use features, such as cash-flow calculator, drag-and-drop formats, and multiple users. Likewise, they often feature modules specific to construction, distribution, and manufacturing. But they also provide paid add-ons such as for point-of-sale, retail and funding.

2. Business management

These accounting software products have more features that go beyond payroll and accounting. They are targeted at larger medium enterprises and big businesses. Like payroll and accounting, these products are readily available off the shelf or online, which you can install at once in your computer.

Aside from standard financial tools and reports, these software can feature all or any of the following: points-of-sale, inventory control, customer relationship management (CRM), billing, purchasing, and enterprise resource management. Often, these products are marketed as a complete solution to your accounting needs. But in reality you need to pay for add-ons to actually complete the system.

3. Web-hosted apps

They are also referred to as Software as a Service (SaaS) or cloud accounting. The main difference from the first two categories, of course, is that SaaS is a subscription-based model and accessible via the internet. This is the fastest growing category in accounting software today because of better cloud and internet infrastructure and the increasing confidence of big businesses to put their data in the cloud. Generally, you subscribe to a monthly fee per user to access the web-hosted system.

Cloud accounting’s most attractive benefit is the lower cost to use the system. Instead of paying a capital to buy license, hardware, and technical staff to run the software, you simply rent these out via the cloud. Of course, that is also its main drawback: entrusting your data to a third-party provider, the cloud accounting firm. Popular SaaS products include Quickbooks Online, Clarity Accounting, NetBooks, and NetSuite.

4. Free software

Approach these products with skepticism. Many of them appear “free,” but they capture your data to force you to subscribe eventually. Of course, not all products do that. The safe bet is to go for free apps by a major brand like QuickBooks. Big brands have a reputation to protect so you can bet they’re not out to rip you off.

Free software allows you to do the most basic accounting processes, such as, create invoices, print checks, handle payroll, and manage about 20 customer accounts. If you want to get more features, you need to pay (which makes going for a major brand logical since they’re likely to have more add-ons in their suite).

Having a general picture of accounting software products in the market today is just a starting point. You need to go deep into your operations and work processes and the products’ specifications to hope for a match.