J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. Has $2.25 Million Holdings in Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU)

J.W. Cole Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU) by 10.9% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 3,582 shares of the software maker’s stock after buying an additional 351 shares during the period. J.W. Cole Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Intuit were worth $2,251,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in INTU. R Squared Ltd purchased a new stake in Intuit in the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Intuit in the third quarter worth $27,000. Heck Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Intuit during the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. acquired a new stake in Intuit during the fourth quarter valued at $28,000. Finally, Sugar Maple Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in Intuit in the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. 83.66% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

INTU has been the subject of several research reports. Scotiabank initiated coverage on Intuit in a report on Monday, November 18th. They set a “sector perform” rating and a $700.00 price target for the company. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on shares of Intuit from $790.00 to $800.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on shares of Intuit from $795.00 to $725.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Barclays reduced their price target on Intuit from $800.00 to $775.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Intuit from $685.00 to $730.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and fifteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $726.53.

Intuit Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of INTU opened at $587.38 on Monday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $620.21 and its 200-day simple moving average is $629.97. The company has a quick ratio of 1.24, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $164.42 billion, a PE ratio of 57.03, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.91 and a beta of 1.24. Intuit Inc. has a 12-month low of $557.29 and a 12-month high of $714.78.

Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The software maker reported $2.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.36 by $0.14. Intuit had a return on equity of 18.25% and a net margin of 17.59%. The company had revenue of $3.28 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.14 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.14 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Intuit Inc. will post 14.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Intuit Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 17th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 9th were issued a dividend of $1.04 per share. This represents a $4.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.71%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 10th. Intuit’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 40.39%.

Insider Activity at Intuit

In other Intuit news, CAO Lauren D. Hotz sold 1,078 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $619.28, for a total value of $667,583.84. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 1,864 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,154,337.92. The trade was a 36.64 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Alex G. Balazs sold 23,810 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $665.98, for a total transaction of $15,856,983.80. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 489 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $325,664.22. This represents a 97.99 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 293,014 shares of company stock worth $188,992,187. 2.68% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Intuit Profile

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.