Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU) Stock Rating Upgraded by StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report released on Saturday morning.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of Intuit from $725.00 to $750.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 21st. Piper Sandler restated an overweight rating and issued a $768.00 target price (up from $760.00) on shares of Intuit in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Intuit from $745.00 to $740.00 and set an overweight rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of Intuit from $720.00 to $740.00 and gave the stock an overweight rating in a research note on Monday, May 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Intuit from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $750.00 to $685.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seventeen have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average target price of $716.35.

Intuit Price Performance

INTU stock opened at $624.81 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $640.15 and a 200-day moving average price of $632.86. Intuit has a 52-week low of $473.56 and a 52-week high of $676.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $174.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 57.64, a PEG ratio of 3.08 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 1.50 and a current ratio of 1.29.

Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 22nd. The software maker reported $1.99 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.85 by $0.14. Intuit had a net margin of 18.19% and a return on equity of 18.64%. The firm had revenue of $3.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.08 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.40 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 17.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Intuit will post 14.06 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Intuit Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a $1.04 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $4.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.67%. This is a boost from Intuit’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.90. Intuit’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 38.38%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Intuit news, CFO Sandeep Aujla sold 1,061 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $651.27, for a total value of $690,997.47. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 3,333 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,170,682.91. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In related news, CFO Sandeep Aujla sold 1,061 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $651.27, for a total transaction of $690,997.47. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 3,333 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,170,682.91. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Scott D. Cook sold 27,309 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $593.16, for a total transaction of $16,198,606.44. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 6,524,412 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,870,020,221.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 104,367 shares of company stock valued at $60,118,991. Insiders own 2.90% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Intuit by 1.1% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 26,057,696 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $16,937,502,000 after purchasing an additional 283,291 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its stake in shares of Intuit by 173.0% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 3,687,583 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,304,850,000 after purchasing an additional 2,336,654 shares in the last quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. increased its stake in shares of Intuit by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 3,548,119 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,217,681,000 after purchasing an additional 80,517 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Intuit during the fourth quarter worth about $2,101,848,000. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Intuit by 9.5% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 3,114,975 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $1,946,954,000 after purchasing an additional 270,432 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.66% of the company’s stock.

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.