New York, Feb 27, 2026, 11:02 EST — Regular session
- Intuit shares rose about 2.4% in morning trade after a late slide on profit guidance
- The TurboTax owner forecast adjusted profit below estimates, citing heavier marketing and support costs
- Focus turns to tax-season volumes into the April 15 U.S. filing deadline
Intuit Inc shares climbed on Friday, reversing an after-hours dip, as investors weighed a strong second quarter against a softer profit outlook for the heart of U.S. tax season.
The stock was up about 2.4% at $403.88 in morning trading, while the Nasdaq was down 0.6% and the S&P 500 eased 0.5%. 1
The move comes a day after Intuit forecast third-quarter adjusted earnings per share of $12.45 to $12.51, below analysts’ average estimate of $12.95, even as it pointed to roughly 10% revenue growth. Adjusted earnings per share is a profit measure that strips out certain costs. 2
Intuit said the gap is largely about spending: more marketing and customer support to pull customers into TurboTax and to push growth in assisted tax — where filers get help from a human expert — and in QuickBooks. Intuit CFO Sandeep Aujla told Reuters the company is “paying OpenAI and Anthropic for the capabilities” and “not paying them revenue share,” as it works AI tools deeper into its products.
Tax season drives Intuit’s strongest quarter. The IRS began accepting federal returns on Jan. 26, and the filing deadline is April 15, which can concentrate demand and, this year, the company’s spending.
In a filing tied to its earnings release, Intuit reported second-quarter revenue of $4.651 billion, up 17%, and said “We delivered an outstanding second quarter, driven by disciplined execution,” according to CEO Sasan Goodarzi. The company reiterated full-year guidance and said it approved a quarterly dividend of $1.20 per share, payable April 17. 3
In its quarterly report, Intuit disclosed selling and marketing expense of $150 million for the quarter, up from $136 million a year earlier, and said it terminated a $5.8 billion short-term revolving credit facility on Feb. 26 that had been set up to help fund a TurboTax early tax refund offering. 4
Intuit competes with H&R Block in assisted tax preparation and with Oracle’s NetSuite in parts of small-business software, where price, service levels and product bundling tend to shift quickly during busy seasons.
Still, Friday’s bounce suggests some buyers are leaning on the company’s revenue growth and its decision to stand by full-year targets, even as it spends more to win customers when they are most likely to switch.
But the setup cuts both ways. If customer acquisition costs rise faster than expected, or if assisted tax demand fails to show up, the company’s margin math can get ugly in a hurry — and the market remains jumpy about whether AI-heavy tools will chip away at traditional software over time.
Investors now watch for signs that the extra spending is translating into early-season tax activity and small-business demand, with the April 15 filing deadline and the quarter-end on April 30 as the next concrete markers.
