Forbes J M & Co. LLP Grows Stock Holdings in Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU)

Forbes J M & Co. LLP increased its stake in shares of Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU) by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,848 shares of the software maker’s stock after buying an additional 29 shares during the period. Forbes J M & Co. LLP’s holdings in Intuit were worth $1,148,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Bay Colony Advisory Group Inc d b a Bay Colony Advisors increased its stake in shares of Intuit by 5.4% in the third quarter. Bay Colony Advisory Group Inc d b a Bay Colony Advisors now owns 971 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $603,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Gemmer Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Intuit by 7.1% in the third quarter. Gemmer Asset Management LLC now owns 480 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $298,000 after purchasing an additional 32 shares in the last quarter. L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP increased its stake in shares of Intuit by 0.3% in the third quarter. L. Roy Papp & Associates LLP now owns 7,765 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $4,822,000 after purchasing an additional 25 shares in the last quarter. Motiv8 Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of Intuit by 10.4% in the third quarter. Motiv8 Investments LLC now owns 1,200 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $745,000 after purchasing an additional 113 shares in the last quarter. Finally, J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Intuit by 73.3% in the third quarter. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. now owns 3,231 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $2,006,000 after purchasing an additional 1,367 shares in the last quarter. 83.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

INTU has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Susquehanna reissued a “positive” rating and issued a $757.00 price objective on shares of Intuit in a research note on Friday, August 16th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Intuit from $745.00 to $740.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Intuit from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $750.00 to $685.00 in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Intuit from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, September 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada started coverage on shares of Intuit in a research report on Wednesday, July 3rd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $760.00 target price for the company. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and fifteen have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $735.71.

Intuit Price Performance

NASDAQ INTU traded up $2.94 on Monday, hitting $612.21. The company had a trading volume of 190,955 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,312,595. The company has a market capitalization of $171.14 billion, a PE ratio of 56.21, a PEG ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.24. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $626.86 and its 200-day moving average price is $626.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 1.29 and a quick ratio of 1.29. Intuit Inc. has a 12-month low of $481.79 and a 12-month high of $676.62.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.85 by $0.14. Intuit had a net margin of 18.19% and a return on equity of 18.64%. The business had revenue of $3.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.08 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.40 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 17.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Intuit Inc. will post 14.04 earnings per share for the current year.

Intuit Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, October 10th were paid a dividend of $1.04 per share. This represents a $4.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.68%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, October 10th. This is a positive change from Intuit’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.90. Intuit’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 38.38%.

Insider Transactions at Intuit

In related news, EVP Alex G. Balazs sold 2,941 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $628.76, for a total value of $1,849,183.16. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 20 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,575.20. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, EVP Alex G. Balazs sold 2,941 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $628.76, for a total transaction of $1,849,183.16. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 20 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,575.20. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Eve B. Burton sold 2,988 shares of Intuit stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $649.87, for a total transaction of $1,941,811.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 55,297 shares of company stock valued at $35,220,046. 2.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.