Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU) Stock Rating Lowered by BNP Paribas

BNP Paribas cut shares of Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU) from a neutral rating to an underperform rating in a report issued on Wednesday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has $530.00 price objective on the software maker’s stock.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on INTU. Barclays lowered their price objective on Intuit from $800.00 to $775.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Oppenheimer boosted their price target on Intuit from $712.00 to $722.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. StockNews.com lowered shares of Intuit from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, December 20th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Intuit from $685.00 to $730.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Intuit from $600.00 to $640.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $726.53.

Intuit Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ:INTU opened at $604.13 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $647.69 and a 200 day moving average of $637.39. The company has a market cap of $169.11 billion, a PE ratio of 58.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 1.25. Intuit has a 12-month low of $557.29 and a 12-month high of $714.78. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The software maker reported $2.50 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 revenue was up 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.14 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Intuit will post 14.09 EPS for the current year.

Intuit Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 17th. Investors of record on Thursday, January 9th were issued a dividend of $1.04 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 10th. This represents a $4.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.69%. Intuit’s payout ratio is presently 40.39%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Scott D. Cook sold 75,000 shares of Intuit stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $641.82, for a total transaction of $48,136,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 6,378,105 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,093,595,351.10. The trade was a 1.16 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Laura A. Fennell sold 4,788 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $613.62, for a total transaction of $2,938,012.56. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 30,010 shares in the company, valued at $18,414,736.20. This trade represents a 13.76 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 293,014 shares of company stock valued at $188,992,187 over the last three months. 2.68% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Intuit

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC purchased a new stake in Intuit in the third quarter worth $27,000. Sugar Maple Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Intuit in the 4th quarter worth about $29,000. Denver PWM LLC bought a new stake in Intuit during the 3rd quarter valued at about $32,000. Dunhill Financial LLC boosted its position in Intuit by 110.3% in the 3rd quarter. Dunhill Financial LLC now owns 61 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 32 shares during the period. Finally, Kimelman & Baird LLC bought a new position in Intuit in the 2nd quarter worth about $49,000. 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.