By Tess Stynes
Intuit Inc.'s chief financial officer said Thursday that the
online tax-software company hasn't seen any indications that its
systems were breached in connection with a wave of fraudulent
tax-return filings this month.
The comments from finance chief Neil Williams came after the
company reported its revenue rose 3.3% in the January quarter,
helped by subscriber growth at its QuickBooks segment,
Intuit said it continues to take measures to navigate a
heightened sense of concern about tax fraud. Earlier this
month--after the quarter ended--the fraudulent filings caused the
company's TurboTax business to halt the transmission of e-filed
state tax returns for about 24 hours.
Mr. Williams also reiterated that Intuit has been working with
number of third-party consulting firms to get independent look at
its own security systems. Going forward, TurboTax also has
implemented multi-factor authentication to access its online tax
services as an added precaution. He added is too early in the tax
season to determine whether there is an increase in tax refund
fraud this year, compared with past tax seasons.
Shares edged up about 1% after hours and have increased 24% over
the past 12 months through Thursday's close.
But the company gave a disappointing forecast for the current
quarter, guiding for per-share earnings of $2.70 to $2.75 and
revenue of $2.075 billion to $2.15 billion. Analysts polled by
Thomson Reuters expected a per-share profit decline of 19% to $2.88
and revenue decrease of 7% to $2.23 billion.
Intuit, also known for Quicken, has diversified through a
variety of acquisitions. In June, the company bought mobile payment
provider Check for about $360 million. Previously, it struck deals
for document service DocStoc and tax-return helper GoodApril.
For the period ended Jan. 31, Intuit reported a loss of $66
million, or 23 cents a share, compared with a year-earlier loss of
$37 million, or 13 cents a share. Excluding stock-based
compensation and other items, the per-share loss from continuing
operations was six cents, compared with a year-earlier earnings of
two cents. The company expected a loss excluding items of 11 cents
to 13 cents a share.
Revenue edged up to $808 million, exceeding the company's
expectations for $780 million to $800 million.
The company said it added more than 100,000 QuickBooks Online
subscribers versus the previous quarter, bringing total paying
subscribers worldwide to 841,000.
Intuit also affirmed its guidance for the year ending in
July.
Write to Tess Stynes at tess.stynes@wsj.com
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