Buy the Spike in Intuit (INTU) Stock After Earnings?

Spiking +8% today, Intuit INTU stock made headlines after comfortably exceeding expectations for its fiscal third quarter after-market hours on Thursday.Sitting on gains of +15% year to date, Intuit stock has outperformed the broader market and many of its notable Zacks Computer-Software peers, including Microsoft MSFT and Salesforce CRM.Not too far from its 52-week high of $734 a share, investors are surely wondering if there is more upside in store for the financial software giant’s stock, with generative AI starting to enhance Intuit’s accounting and tax preparation services.Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Intuit’s Q3 Results Thanks to its AI-driven solutions, Intuit’s Q3 sales of $7.75 billion eclipsed estimates of $7.54 billion and spiked from $6.73 billion a year ago. CEO Sasan Goodarzi stated Intuit is becoming a one-stop shop for AI agents and AI-enabled human experts. Notably, Intuit Assist offers a generative AI-powered financial assistant that helps users with tax filing, business insights, and financial decision-making. On the bottom line, Intuit's Q3 EPS of $11.65 rose 18% from $9.88 in the comparative quarter and topped expectations of $10.89 per share by nearly 7%. More intriguing, Intuit has now surpassed the Zacks EPS Consensus for 13 consecutive quarters with an average earnings surprise of 12.15% in its last four quarterly reports.Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Intuit's Revenue Guidance Serving as a further catalyst to Friday’s rally was that Intuit raised its full-year revenue guidance and now expects fiscal 2025 sales to be between $18.72 billion-18.76 billion, up from previous estimates of $18.16 billion-$18.35 billion. This came in above Zacks' estimates of $18.28 billion or 12% growth (Current Year below). Zacks' projections currently call for Intuit’s total sales to increase another 12% in FY26 to $20.48 billion.Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Monitoring Intuit’s P/E Valuation Following its post-earnings rally, Intuit stock is trading at a 34.5X forward earnings multiple, which is on par with Microsoft but a premium to its industry average of 27.3X, with Salesforce at 25.5X. However, INTU does trade well below its decade-long high of 87.2X forward earnings and offers a 23% discount to its median of 44.9X during this period.  Image Source: Zacks Investment Research Bottom LineFor now, Intuit stock lands a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) following its favorable Q3 report. That said, it wouldn’t be surprising if a buy rating is on the way as earnings estimate revisions could trend higher in the coming weeks, considering Intuit’s elevated revenue guidance.7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 DaysJust released: Experts distill 7 elite stocks from the current list of 220 Zacks Rank #1 Strong Buys. They deem these tickers "Most Likely for Early Price Pops."Since 1988, the full list has beaten the market more than 2X over with an average gain of +23.0% per year. So be sure to give these hand picked 7 your immediate attention. See them now >>Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Intuit Inc. (INTU): Free Stock Analysis Report Microsoft Corporation (MSFT): Free Stock Analysis Report Salesforce Inc. (CRM): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).Zacks Investment ResearchWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks