Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the nineteen brokerages that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and fourteen have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $737.44.

INTU has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Scotiabank initiated coverage on shares of Intuit in a research note on Monday, November 18th. They issued a “sector perform” rating and a $700.00 price objective for the company. Oppenheimer increased their price target on Intuit from $712.00 to $722.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $760.00 price objective on shares of Intuit in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Intuit from $685.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on Intuit from $790.00 to $800.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd.

Intuit Trading Down 2.0 %

NASDAQ:INTU opened at $636.95 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $178.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 61.84, a PEG ratio of 3.31 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a quick ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $643.54 and its 200-day moving average price is $633.69. Intuit has a 52 week low of $557.29 and a 52 week high of $714.78.

Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The software maker reported $2.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.36 by $0.14. The business had revenue of $3.28 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.14 billion. Intuit had a net margin of 17.59% and a return on equity of 18.25%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.14 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Intuit will post 14.07 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Intuit Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 17th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 9th will be issued a $1.04 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 9th. This represents a $4.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.65%. Intuit’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 40.39%.

Insider Transactions at Intuit

In other Intuit news, EVP Alex G. Balazs sold 23,810 shares of Intuit stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $665.98, for a total value of $15,856,983.80. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 489 shares in the company, valued at approximately $325,664.22. The trade was a 97.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Scott D. Cook sold 75,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $641.82, for a total value of $48,136,500.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 6,378,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,093,595,351.10. The trade was a 1.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 114,934 shares of company stock valued at $74,352,182. Insiders own 2.68% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Intuit

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of INTU. International Assets Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Intuit by 68,404.7% during the 3rd quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 484,328 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $300,768,000 after purchasing an additional 483,621 shares during the period. Holocene Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Intuit by 99.6% during the third quarter. Holocene Advisors LP now owns 625,583 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $388,487,000 after buying an additional 312,212 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in Intuit by 17.3% during the second quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,616,811 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,062,578,000 after buying an additional 238,486 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its holdings in Intuit by 1.8% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 12,317,086 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $7,648,910,000 after buying an additional 221,885 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Clearbridge Investments LLC lifted its position in shares of Intuit by 21.3% during the 2nd quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC now owns 964,328 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $633,766,000 after acquiring an additional 169,190 shares during the period. 83.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Intuit

Intuit Inc provides financial management and compliance products and services for consumers, small businesses, self-employed, and accounting professionals in the United States, Canada, and internationally. The company operates in four segments: Small Business & Self-Employed, Consumer, Credit Karma, and ProTax.