Intuit offers its mission-critical software to clients for free. This hot NASDAQ stock has become a SAAS heavyweight in recent years and a favorite among retail investors.
The company acquired Mailchimp email marketing software for $12bn late last year. This should help massively grow its target market. But tech stocks are rapidly falling out of favor, so is INTU worth investing in at these levels?
What does Intuit do, and how does Intuit make money?
Intuit serves business and financial management products to small and self-employed businesses. Its portfolio includes QuickBooks online and desktop software, TurboTax and Mint products for consumers, personal finance via Credit Karma and professional accounting offerings under its ProConnect segment.
Intuit makes money from several revenue streams, including advertising, referrals and subscriptions.
The company generates income from software licenses, updates, QuickBooks Desktop subscriptions and desktop payroll offerings.
Intuit Mint generates revenue from ads on its website and app and referrals to other financial institutions and companies.
The company also generates revenue from the services and support it provides to QuickBooks and desktop payroll and merchant customers.
Intuit's growing array of product offerings means it can efficiently cross-sell to help it scale.
Intuit's key financial metrics:
Intuit is a $146bn company with a growing customer base.
In Q1 of fiscal 2022, Intuit financial highlights include:
Revenue of $2bn, up 52% year-over-year.
Net income rose $30m or 15% year-over-year.
Small Business & Self-Employed revenue of $1.4bn, up 22% year-over-year.
Cash, cash equivalents and investments of $3.3bn.
Operating income decreased $14 million or 7% year-over-year, primarily due to increases in expenses for staffing, share-based compensation, marketing, and amortization.
Intuit's financial metrics are as follows:
LTM P/E is 68.3, that's above the industry average of 51.1.
NTM P/E is 40.9, which is also above the industry average of 35.3.
Its PEG ratio is 2.3, which is in line with the industry average.
P/S is 13.9.
The dividend yield is 0.5%.
Intuit's return on equity (ROE) has fallen year-over-year for the past four years.
Is Intuit stock a good investment in 2022?
For many people, finance is tricky to understand. But life is much easier when we keep track of our finances both in our personal lives and business. Intuit sees that and aims to bridge the knowledge gap and smooth the financial tracking process with ease.
Intuit builds its products to help customers have confidence in filing their own taxes and managing their books. For those that don't, it connects to expert help. In turn, the experts grow their business from Intuit's customer base.
Intuit appears to have a relatively sticky customer base because once they've mastered the tools, dependence sets in and makes life easier. Therefore the customer is unlikely to seek alternatives. And the recurring revenue model makes for a promising growth story.
The main risk to Intuit is its growth strategy slowing. To continue to grow, Intuit needs to stay ahead of technology trends and enter new markets. It's also highly dependent on the strength of its third-party business relationships. Competition is also fierce.
Growth in tech costs a lot of money to achieve, and the falling ROE is a red flag that this company may still be expensive.
However, its Mailchimp acquisition has the potential to bring considerable growth in the coming years. And with the surge in small businesses since COVID hit, there's rising demand for Intuit's growing suite of product offerings.