Shares of Intuit Inc (NASDAQ:INTU) are down 6.4% to trade at $653.16, despite the California-based fintech company topping earnings estimates, reporting fiscal fourth-quarter earnings of $2.75 per share on $3.83 billion in revenue. Strong results from its new AI-driven platform and subsidiaries like Credit Karma weren't enough to offset weakness at Mailchimp and TurboTax, along with a weaker-than-expected outlook. The stock has beaten earnings estimates in each of the previous four quarters, but only logged positive post-earnings moves in two of them.
Should today's losses hold, INTU will mark a fourth-straight weekly drop as it falls further from its July 30 record high of $18.70. Year-to-date, the equity is still hanging on to a 2.5% lead.
Analysts are mixed on INTU, with 27 firms firms maintaining a "buy" or better rating and the other 11 leaning "hold" or worse. J.P. Morgan Securities, Morgan Stanley, and Barclays Securities also cut their price targets, while RBC Capital Securities is standing firm with an outperform rating.
Bearish sentiment is building in the options pits today, though, with 13,000 puts traded versus 10,000 calls, volume that's eight times the amount seen at this point. The most active contract is the September 650-strike call, followed closely by the August 630- and 650-strike puts, with new positions opening at all three.
This represents a shift in sentiment amongst options traders, as INTU's 50-day call/put volume ratio of 1.21 at the International Securities (ISE), Cboe Options (CBOE) and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX) ranks higher than 91% of readings from the past year.
