Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU) today announced an increase in its guidance for its third quarter pro forma operating income of $15 million, or approximately $0.05 in pro forma earnings per share. Intuit also expects that third quarter revenue will be at the higher end of its current guidance range of $520 million to $544 million. Intuit's third quarter ends on April 30, 2002.
Intuit has not changed its fourth-quarter guidance. Intuit now expects full year fiscal 2002 pro forma operating income to be in the $315 million to $325 million range, representing 43-48 percent year-over-year growth. Intuit's fiscal 2002 revenue guidance has not changed, but Intuit expects annual revenue to be at the higher end of the current guidance range of $1.476 billion to $1.510 billion. Intuit's fiscal year ends July 31, 2002.
"Once again, Intuit is proving its ability to execute and deliver," said Steve Bennett, Intuit's president and chief executive officer. "We are taking guidance up because of the strength of both our QuickBooks and TurboTax businesses.
"The QuickBooks 2002 offerings have been well received by customers. And continuing the trend we saw in the second quarter, we are seeing a shift from the retail channel to direct sales, which provide higher profits." According to Bennett, approximately 40-45 percent of QuickBooks quarter-to-date sales have come from the direct channel, up from 25-30 percent in the comparable year-ago period.
Bennett also noted that Intuit is experiencing strong performance in its Web-based TurboTax business. "A greater portion of our growth in tax is coming from the Web, another highly profitable direct channel," he said.
The company's policy is to not confirm, update or otherwise comment on its financial projections except in compliance with Regulation FD. The projections in the guidance provided above are forward-looking statements and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties as described in "Cautions about Forward-Looking Statements" below.
