Intuit Inc.'s (INTU) fiscal first-quarter loss narrowed as the
tax software company benefited from double-digit revenue growth and
gains from the sale of two business segments.
For current quarter, Intuit forecast per-share earnings of 25
cents to 27 cents and revenue of $890 million to $910 million,
below recent estimates of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters most
recently expected per-share profit of 30 cents and revenue of $914
million.
The maker of TurboTax do-it-yourself software earlier this year
sold its financial-services division and its health division to
focus on the company's core tax operations. Despite a lackluster
2013 tax season, Intuit's consumer-tax segment had grown faster
than its ancillary businesses.
President and Chief Executive Brad Smith on Thursday said, "We
are out of the gate strong in the first quarter, led by the rapid
adoption of QuickBooks Online, which is accelerating our transition
to the cloud (computing sector) and driving value for Intuit."
"We're also gearing up for tax season and looking forward to
getting our new offerings out to market in the coming weeks," Mr.
Smith added.
For the quarter ended Oct. 31, Intuit reported a loss of $11
million, or four cents a share, compared with a year-earlier loss
of $19 million, or six cents a share, a year earlier. The latest
period included income from discontinued operations of 16 cents
while the year earlier included 12 cents. Excluding stock-based
compensation and other items, adjusted loss from continuing
operations widened to six cents from five cents. Revenue increased
11% to $622 million.
The company had forecast a per-share loss of 10 cents to 11
cents and revenue of $595 million to $605 million.
Shares of Intuit, which affirmed its fiscal-year revenue
outlook, were down 1.6% at $72 in recent after-hours trading. The
stock has been trading near its all-time high recently.
Write to Tess Stynes at tess.stynes@wsj.com
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