INTU
The beat wasn’t the headline
Intuit did what public companies love to do right before a brutal stock reaction: it beat expectations. Fiscal third-quarter revenue came in at $8.56 billion, up 10.4% from a year ago and a bit above Wall Street’s $8.52 billion target.
So why did the stock get walloped? Because investors weren’t shopping the rearview mirror. They were staring straight at the windshield, and the windshield had a few chips.
TurboTax is the party pooper
The big worry was Intuit’s softer long-term outlook for TurboTax, one of the company’s crown jewels. That matters because tax season is supposed to be Intuit’s Super Bowl, and if the star player starts looking tired, people notice.
At the same time, Intuit said it plans to cut roughly 17% of its workforce — about 3,000 jobs. That’s not just a cost-cutting footnote; it’s a sign the company is trying to reset its operating model while doubling down on AI and automation.
Why investors care
Here’s the tug-of-war in plain English:
- The current quarter looked solid, with revenue still growing double digits.
- The future feels murkier if TurboTax growth slows.
- A big workforce reduction can help margins later, but it also screams “we’re changing the machine while it’s still running.”
The result? Shares opened about 19% lower, which is a very loud way for the market to say it wants more than an earnings beat — it wants confidence that the next few chapters won’t be written with a red pen.
Big picture: Intuit is trying to sell investors on a leaner, AI-powered future. Today, the market’s response was basically: cool story, but show me the proof.