Intuit Narrows Loss, Names New CEO

Updated from 5:20 p.m. EDT

SAN FRANCISCO -- In its typically slow fourth quarter, Intuit's(INTU Quote) narrower net loss surprised analysts, but next-quarter revenue guidance came up short.

Additionally on Wednesday, the company announced a change of guard in the CEO post.

The Mountain View, Calif., developer of TurboTax and QuickBooks software reported a per-share loss of 4 cents, or $13.6 million, vs. a loss of $18.9 million in the same quarter last year.

The top line of $432.7 million was well ahead of Thomson Financial analysts' expectations of $415.7 million, and up 31% from the same period of 2006.

Excluding items, Intuit lost 2 cents, or $7.5 million, vs. a loss of $11.5 million in the year-ago period. Analysts forecast a loss of a nickel a share.

In recent after-hours trading, shares were down 44 cents, or 1.5%, to $28.50.

All ongoing product segments performed as expected, and most were at the high end of guidance for the year, CEO Stephen Bennett said in an interview. "They all performed well."

The company said growth was driven by the acquisition in February of Digital Insight, a $300 million business, and strong performance in sales to small businesses.

Intuit will soon expand Digital Insight's bill-pay capability by bringing out FinanceWorks for Small Business, a hosted, on-demand software suite sold through Digital Insight to financial institutions, which will make it available to their clients. FinanceWorks "will have small business functionality and integration with online banking that we think will be big in the marketplace," he said. "Time will tell if it's a killer app[lication]."