By Tess Stynes
Intuit Inc.'s chief financial officer said Thursday that the
online tax-software company hasn't seen any indications that its
systems were breached in connection with a wave of fraudulent
tax-return filings this month.
The comments from finance chief Neil Williams came after the
company reported its revenue rose 3.3% in the January quarter,
helped by subscriber growth at its QuickBooks segment.
Earlier this month--after the quarter ended--the fraudulent
filings led the company's TurboTax business to halt the
transmission of e-filed state tax returns for about 24 hours.
Intuit said it continues to take measures to navigate a
heightened sense of concern about tax fraud, and Mr. Williams
reiterated in an interview with The Wall Street Journal that Intuit
has been working with number of third-party consulting firms to get
independent look at its own security systems.
Going forward, TurboTax also has implemented multi-factor
authentication to access its online tax services as an added
precaution. Mr. Williams added it is too early in the tax season to
determine whether there is an increase in tax refund fraud this
year, compared with past tax seasons.
It was already a tough tax season for Intuit ahead of the
fraudulent filings. The company angered some longtime users of its
software by making changes that would have required some customers
to upgrade to more expensive versions to file 2014 returns.
But after a furor, the company reversed the changes.
On a conference call, Chief Executive Brad Smith called the
upgrade plan "self-inflicted wound" and acknowledged its has been
"an eventful few weeks at Intuit."
Intuit shares edged up about 1% after hours and have increased
24% over the past 12 months through Thursday's close.
The company, however, gave a disappointing forecast for the
current quarter, guiding for per-share earnings of $2.70 to $2.75
and revenue of $2.075 billion to $2.15 billion. Analysts polled by
Thomson Reuters expected a per-share profit decline of 19% to $2.88
and revenue decrease of 7% to $2.23 billion.
Intuit, also known for Quicken, has diversified through a
variety of acquisitions. In June, the company bought mobile payment
provider Check for about $360 million. Previously, it struck deals
for document service DocStoc and tax-return helper GoodApril.
For the period ended Jan. 31, Intuit reported a loss of $66
million, or 23 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of
$37 million, or 13 cents a share. Excluding stock-based
compensation and other items, the per-share loss from continuing
operations was six cents, compared with a year-earlier earnings of
two cents. The company expected a loss excluding items of 11 cents
to 13 cents a share.
Revenue edged up to $808 million, exceeding the company's
expectations for $780 million to $800 million.
The company said it added more than 100,000 QuickBooks Online
subscribers versus the previous quarter, bringing total paying
subscribers worldwide to 841,000.
Intuit also affirmed its guidance for the year ending in
July.
-Laura Saunders contributed to this article.
Write to Tess Stynes at tess.stynes@wsj.com
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