Jaspreet Singh
(Reuters) – Intuit, maker of tax preparation software TurboTax, said on Thursday its third-quarter profit rose and raised its full-year forecast, as the company benefited from demand for its AI-integrated products during a strong tax season.
The company's tax preparation software, personal finance portal Credit Karma, and accounting software QuickBooks are in demand among small businesses and individuals looking to manage their finances.
Intuit also offers AI-powered Intuit Assist, which is embedded across the company's products to help small businesses and consumers make financial decisions based on personalized recommendations.
“We will be testing Gen-AI-driven SKUs (stock keeping units), which will do everything for the customer and the customer will pay extra for it,” Sasan Gudarji told Reuters in an interview.
“For taxpayers across the industry, this was the first 'back to normal' tax season. It felt like we were coming out of the COVID era,” he said.
Intuit now expects full-year revenue of $16.16 billion to $16.2 billion, down from its previous guidance range of $15.89 billion to $16.11 billion.
The latest median full-year revenue outlook beat analysts' average forecast of $16.05 billion, according to LSEG data.
The company expected fourth-quarter sales of $3.06 billion to $3.1 billion, compared with forecasts of $3.04 billion.
Third-quarter sales rose about 12% to $6.74 billion, slightly beating expectations of $6.65 billion. Excluding items, earnings per share were $9.88, beating the $9.37 estimate.
In the third quarter, consumer group revenues for private clients increased 9% to $3.7 billion.
Sales in the Small Business and Self-Employed group, which offers products such as accounting software QuickBooks, rose 18 percent to $2.4 billion.
The company also announced that Credit Karma President Joe Kaufman will take over as CEO starting Aug. 1, as founder and CEO Ken Lin plans to step down at the end of the year.
(Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Mohammed Safi Shamsi and Arun Koyyuru)
