New York, March 1, 2026, 12:26 PM EST — The session wrapped with markets closed.
- Intuit finished Friday at $409.03, up 3.7%, following a volatile session sparked by its tax-season outlook.
- The company pointed to increased marketing and customer support expenses, leaving its third-quarter profit outlook short of estimates.
- Tax-season volumes and margins are under the spotlight for investors heading into the April 15 U.S. filing deadline.
Intuit Inc finished Friday up 3.7%, closing at $409.03. The move followed a softer-than-expected profit outlook for its key tax season, though investors appeared to regain their footing. 1
This is a key stretch for Intuit—TurboTax activity usually jumps in the fiscal third quarter, and the company is doubling down on spending to pull in more filers as competition heats up. Traders are left with a straightforward call heading into Monday: will that bigger outlay actually drive growth, or just squeeze margins?
Intuit came out late Thursday with an adjusted earnings per share outlook of $12.45 to $12.51 for the quarter ending April 30, missing the $12.95 average estimate from analysts polled by LSEG. CFO Sandeep Aujla told Reuters that the company’s stepped-up spending on marketing and customer service is focused on ramping up its assisted tax business — that’s paid filings with human support — and QuickBooks. “We’re paying OpenAI and Anthropic for the capabilities. We’re not paying them revenue share,” Aujla said. 2
The Internal Revenue Service kicked off federal return processing on Jan. 26. With April 15 as the filing cutoff, the season’s busiest stretch runs through the next six weeks. Intuit projected quarterly revenue growth of about 10%—that’s essentially matching what the Street had been looking for.
Intuit posted a 17% jump in second-quarter revenue, reaching $4.651 billion, with non-GAAP diluted EPS moving up to $4.15. The company bought back $961 million in stock over the quarter, and its board greenlit a $1.20 per share dividend scheduled for April 17. 3
Shares initially plunged about 4% in Thursday’s after-hours moves, but Friday’s session saw buyers return. Trading volume surged to 8.2 million shares — that’s more than twice Intuit’s 50-day average — despite weakness across the broader market. 4
Intuit faces pressure from H&R Block on the consumer tax side and Oracle’s NetSuite in business software. Investors have kept an eye on fast-evolving AI, worried it might threaten standard tax and bookkeeping routines—a concern that’s weighed on the stock for months.
On the call, Aujla pointed to margin pressure as a matter of trade-offs and timing, explaining that some “marketing and customer success cost” moved into the third quarter while Intuit focused on getting the best return on investment. 5
Still, things could sour. Should filing volumes fall short, or if customer acquisition costs outpace forecasts, the uptick in expenses might stick around for more than a single quarter—putting more pressure on profit than the company’s letting on.
There’s more paperwork for investors to sift through. Intuit has put out its latest 10-Q and an 8-K, both dated Feb. 26, giving a closer look at costs, seasonality, and how the company’s different segments are moving. 6
What’s next? Market watchers are eyeing early-season tax trends for any signals, with attention zeroed in on two key dates: April 15, the tax filing cutoff, and April 30, quarter-end—both set to shape Intuit’s upcoming earnings portrait.
