Guinness Asset Management LTD Purchases 6,075 Shares of Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU)

Guinness Asset Management LTD lifted its position in shares of Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU) by 9.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 67,354 shares of the software maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,075 shares during the quarter. Intuit makes up about 0.8% of Guinness Asset Management LTD’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 29th largest position. Guinness Asset Management LTD’s holdings in Intuit were worth $42,333,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new stake in Intuit during the 3rd quarter worth $27,000. Denver PWM LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Intuit during the third quarter worth $32,000. Dunhill Financial LLC increased its holdings in Intuit by 110.3% in the third quarter. Dunhill Financial LLC now owns 61 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $38,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares during the last quarter. Groupama Asset Managment lifted its stake in Intuit by 10.6% in the third quarter. Groupama Asset Managment now owns 7,517 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 720 shares during the period. Finally, Kimelman & Baird LLC bought a new position in Intuit during the second quarter worth about $49,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.66% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price objective on shares of Intuit from $795.00 to $725.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Scotiabank began coverage on shares of Intuit in a research report on Monday, November 18th. They set a “sector perform” rating and a $700.00 price target on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Intuit from $790.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. BNP Paribas downgraded Intuit from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $530.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $760.00 target price on shares of Intuit in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and fourteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $726.53.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Sandeep Aujla sold 109 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $628.50, for a total value of $68,506.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 1,944 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,221,804. The trade was a 5.31 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Scott D. Cook sold 75,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $641.82, for a total transaction of $48,136,500.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 6,378,105 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,093,595,351.10. This represents a 1.16 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 293,014 shares of company stock worth $188,992,187 over the last three months. Insiders own 2.68% of the company’s stock.

Intuit Stock Down 0.5 %

INTU stock opened at $604.13 on Monday. Intuit Inc. has a 1-year low of $557.29 and a 1-year high of $714.78. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $646.09 and its 200 day simple moving average is $636.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $169.11 billion, a PE ratio of 58.65, a PEG ratio of 3.07 and a beta of 1.25.

Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The software maker reported $2.50 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.36 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $3.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.14 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Intuit Inc. will post 14.09 EPS for the current year.

Intuit Announces Dividend

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

Intuit Profile

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.