Sales Help Intuit Narrow Loss in First Quarter

Intuit Inc., a maker of financial software, said Tuesday its loss from continuing operations narrowed in its fiscal first quarter, helped by stronger sales of its small-business products.

Intuit reported a loss from continuing operations of $12.1 million, or 26 cents a share, compared with a loss of $14.3 million, or 31 cents, in the year-ago quarter. The results met analysts’ expectations.

Analysts said they were encouraged by the narrower-than-expected loss, though they were concerned about how well Intuit’s TurboTax program would sell this year. It faced tough competition last year from a rival product from H&R; Block Inc., which shipped its tax-preparation software earlier.

“It was a decent quarter,” said Michael Stanek, an analyst at Lehman Brothers & Co. in San Francisco.

Menlo Park-based Intuit typically reports a loss for the October quarter because of the seasonal sales of its popular tax-preparation software.

Intuit has been trying to diversify its business to counter slower growth in sales of its Quicken personal finance software.

Intuit reported earnings after the U.S. stock market closed. Its shares fell 88 cents to close at $27.31 in Nasdaq trading.

Sales from continuing operations for the three months ended Oct. 31 rose 13% to $96 million from $84.8 million.

Including acquisition-related charges of $4.6 million, Intuit said it had a final loss of $12.8 million, or 27 cents a share, during the quarter. That compares with a loss of $28.3 million, or 61 cents a share, which includes after-tax charges of $15.3 million in the year-ago quarter.

Sales of QuickBooks, software used to help small businesses automate monthly financial activity, contributed to the rise in sales in the first fiscal quarter, Intuit said. QuickBooks sales rose 30%, the company said, without giving figures.

The narrower loss shows that the company is making progress in efforts to get more revenue from Internet-related products, company Chairman Scott Cook said.