Verity & Verity LLC Buys Shares of 654 Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU)

Verity & Verity LLC bought a new stake in Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU) during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor bought 654 shares of the software maker’s stock, valued at approximately $402,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its position in Intuit by 2.2% in the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 171,605 shares of the software maker’s stock valued at $107,854,000 after purchasing an additional 3,648 shares during the period. Capitolis Liquid Global Markets LLC acquired a new position in shares of Intuit in the fourth quarter worth $109,988,000. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new position in shares of Intuit in the fourth quarter worth $237,244,000. V Square Quantitative Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Intuit by 7.0% in the fourth quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 7,671 shares of the software maker’s stock worth $4,821,000 after acquiring an additional 501 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alberta Investment Management Corp acquired a new position in shares of Intuit in the fourth quarter worth $10,757,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.66% of the company’s stock.

Intuit Price Performance

Shares of INTU opened at $766.21 on Friday. Intuit Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $532.65 and a fifty-two week high of $773.45. The company has a market capitalization of $213.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 74.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.28. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $660.65 and a 200-day simple moving average of $629.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.24.

Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 22nd. The software maker reported $11.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $10.89 by $0.76. The business had revenue of $7.75 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.56 billion. Intuit had a net margin of 17.59% and a return on equity of 18.25%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 15.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $9.88 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Intuit Inc. will post 14.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Intuit Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.04 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 10th. This represents a $4.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.54%. Intuit’s dividend payout ratio is currently 33.77%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Intuit news, Director Eve B. Burton sold 1,702 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $600.00, for a total transaction of $1,021,200.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 8 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,800. This represents a 99.53% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Scott D. Cook sold 62,816 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $765.99, for a total transaction of $48,116,427.84. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 6,000,679 shares in the company, valued at $4,596,460,107.21. The trade was a 1.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 288,408 shares of company stock valued at $213,441,865 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 2.68% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on INTU. Evercore ISI boosted their price target on shares of Intuit from $685.00 to $785.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 23rd. HSBC upgraded shares of Intuit from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $699.00 price target for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Intuit from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 29th. KeyCorp reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $850.00 target price (up previously from $770.00) on shares of Intuit in a research note on Friday, May 23rd. Finally, Citigroup reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $789.00 target price (up previously from $726.00) on shares of Intuit in a research note on Friday, May 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, twenty have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Intuit presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $785.33.

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.