Intuit Posts Loss For Historically Weak QuarterIntuit Posts Loss For Historically Weak Quarter

While Intuit Inc. posted a loss for its first fiscal quarter, it was able to counter the historically weak quarter with double-digit growth in its QuickBooks and Intuit-branded small-business software.

The company typically loses money during its first and fourth quarters, when there's weak demand for its consumer and small-business tax software products.

For the quarter ended Oct. 31, Intuit posted a loss of $46.1 million, or 24 cents a share, on revenue of $266.0 million, compared with a loss of $54.0 million, 27 cents, on revenue of $239.3 million a year earlier.

QuickBooks revenue was up 12% year over year to $145.6 million. Revenue from Intuit's small-business unit, which includes offerings for the construction, distribution management, and real-estate markets, and payroll and IT asset-management products, was up 13% to $66.7 million.

On the tax side of the business, revenue from consumer-tax products was down 3%, while business-tax software revenue was up 7%. During fiscal 2004, more than 95% of its tax-software revenue was generated during the third and fourth quarters, which run from Nov. 1 to April 30.

Intuit projects 2005 revenue at between $1.97 billion and $2.02 billion. Revenue for the second quarter ending Jan. 31 is expected to fall between $625 million and $645 million--about the same as last year--while third-quarter revenue is expected to be between $780 million and $810 million, a 10% to 14% increase from a year earlier.