Financial software maker Intuit easily beat quarterly earnings estimates amid continued strong growth in QuickBooks Online subscribers.
For the first quarter, Intuit posted adjusted earnings per share of 11 cents, up 83% year over year, on revenue of $886 million, up 14%. Analysts had expected earnings of 6 cents a share on revenue of $855 million.
The company’s small business & self-employed group reported revenue growth of 17%, with QuickBooks Online subscribers worldwide reaching 2.55 million, an increase of 170,000 in the quarter. Outside the U.S., subscribers increased 70% to about 550,000.
“We are off to a strong start [to the year], growing first-quarter revenue 14 percent and exceeding our overall financial targets,” Intuit CEO Brad Smith said in a news release.
“QuickBooks Online subscriber growth continues at a rapid pace and online ecosystem revenue is accelerating for small business and self-employed,” he added. “Gearing up for the tax season, we are focusing on delivering an outstanding end-to-end customer experience for the do-it-yourself taxpayers while rolling out new solutions to our customers.”
With QuickBooks Online, Intuit has been seeking to capitalize on small businesses’ increasing use of the cloud. According to the company, cloud usage among small businesses has grown to 62% from 37% over the past two years and app usage has gone up to 68% from 50%.
The QuickBooks Online platform offers more than 1,200 apps for subscribers. Self-employed subscribers rose to 425,000 from 390,000 in the last quarter.
During Monday’s regular trading session, Intuit stock hit an all-time high of 158.90 before closing up 0.8% at $158.18. In after-hours trading, it fell 1.75% to $155.02.
For the second quarter, the company expects to make 8 cents to 11 cents a share, or 31 cents to 34 cents on an adjusted basis, on $1.16 billion to $1.18 billion in revenue. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters had projected 10 cents a share, or 32 cents as adjusted, on $1.12 billion in revenue.