Intuit soars on strong earnings, upbeat outlook

Shares of Intuit Inc. rallied in Tuesday's extended session after the maker of TurboTax software posted better-than-expected earnings and issued an upbeat outlook. Intuit reported its third-quarter earnings slipped to $964 million, $3.70 a share, from $1.03 billion, or $3.94 a share, a year earlier. Excluding items, the company would have earned $3.90 a share. Revenue rose to $2.54 billion from $2.3 billion. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast earnings of $3.87 a share on revenue of $2.5 billion. Intuit projected fourth-quarter revenue of $795 million to $815 million and adjusted earnings per share of 16 cents to 18 cents. For 2017, Intuit expects revenue of $5.13 billion to $5.15 billion and adjusted EPS of $4.38 to $4.40. Forecasts for both fourth quarter and full year are ahead of Wall Street's estimates. The strong results come amid concerns that tax preparation companies such as Intuit could be hurt by President Donald Trump's proposal to simplify the tax code. Intuit jumped 7.6% after hours.

Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.