Intuit meets 2Q forecasts

Intuit (Nasdaq: INTU) met the consensus analyst estimate in the second quarter.

After market close Thursday, the financial software vendor and Web finance portal operator reported fiscal quarter net income of $91.4 million, or 44 cents per share, excluding special charges. That was the figure predicted by First Call's survey of 15 analysts.

Shares of Intuit fell to as low as 63 in afterhours activity. The stock closed Thursday's regular trading at 72 5/16, up 4 3/4 for the session.

Including acquisition-related costs, Intuit earned $57.3 million, or 27 cents per share.

Second quarter revenue rose to $425.5 million, a 14 percent gain year-over-year. That growth rate was slower than in in the first quarter, the company said, because of higher marketing and price cuts for Quicken TurboTax; tax bundling programs that forced Intuit to defer recognition of $25 million to $30 million of revenue related to electronic filing; closing certain branch offices, and thus lowering mortgage revenue, of the recently acquired Rock Financial.

TurboTax held a 70 percent retail market share through the end of January, Intuit said. Quickbooks generated more than 80 percent of all accounting software retail sales by revenue, the company said. Quicken revenue improved more than 50 percent.

Internet revenue of $89.1 million represented a 160 percent gain year-over-year. Quicken.com's visitors rose to 7 million in January from 4.5 million in July.

The company still expects 20 percent operating income growth in 2000, CFO Greg Santora said.>