Sapient Capital LLC Purchases New Shares in Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU)

Sapient Capital LLC bought a new stake in Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 36,426 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $22,767,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Intuit by 0.5% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 25,331,318 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $12,942,784,000 after acquiring an additional 117,478 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its stake in Intuit by 5.0% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 5,636,635 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,879,982,000 after buying an additional 266,803 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley increased its stake in Intuit by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,848,401 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,966,304,000 after buying an additional 137,198 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in Intuit by 5.2% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 3,212,771 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,641,533,000 after buying an additional 160,229 shares during the period. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in Intuit by 9.5% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 3,114,957 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,946,943,000 after buying an additional 270,414 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.66% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Kerry J. Mclean sold 3,692 shares of Intuit stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $663.84, for a total transaction of $2,450,897.28. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 22,948 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,233,800.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, EVP Kerry J. Mclean sold 3,692 shares of Intuit stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $663.84, for a total value of $2,450,897.28. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 22,948 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,233,800.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Alex G. Balazs sold 280 shares of Intuit stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $636.38, for a total transaction of $178,186.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 4,717 shares of company stock valued at $3,117,156 in the last three months. 2.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently commented on INTU. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of Intuit from $560.00 to $585.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Evercore ISI increased their target price on shares of Intuit from $670.00 to $725.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, February 23rd. KeyCorp increased their target price on shares of Intuit from $700.00 to $720.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on shares of Intuit from $615.00 to $710.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Intuit from $600.00 to $720.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 23rd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Intuit currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $650.23.

Intuit Stock Performance

INTU traded up $15.23 during trading on Friday, reaching $629.27. 1,109,512 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,209,705. Intuit Inc. has a 1 year low of $400.22 and a 1 year high of $671.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35, a current ratio of 1.17 and a quick ratio of 1.17. The stock has a market capitalization of $176.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 64.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.83 and a beta of 1.22. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $637.56 and its 200-day simple moving average is $605.68.

Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The software maker reported $2.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.30 by $0.33. The company had revenue of $3.39 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.39 billion. Intuit had a net margin of 18.35% and a return on equity of 17.51%. Intuit’s revenue for the quarter was up 11.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.05 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Intuit Inc. will post 11.27 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Intuit Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 10th were issued a dividend of $0.90 per share. This represents a $3.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.57%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 9th. Intuit’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 36.73%.

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.