Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU) announced financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2015, which ended Oct. 31.

“We began fiscal 2015 on a strong note. Our shift to the cloud continues to accelerate customer growth, led by QuickBooks Online,” said Brad Smith, Intuit’s president and chief executive officer. “We’re also gearing up for tax season and are looking forward to our lineup of innovative solutions coming to market.

“While it is early in our fiscal year, I’m energized by our results as we continue to drive momentum in our online ecosystems,” Smith said.

Financial Highlights

Unless otherwise noted, all growth rates refer to the current period versus the comparable prior-year period, and the business metrics and associated growth rates refer to worldwide business metrics.

During the first quarter, Intuit:

• Delivered total company revenue of $672 million, up 8 percent, driven by the ongoing acceleration to the cloud.
• Grew total QuickBooks Online subscribers by 43 percent to 739,000, up from 40 percent growth in the previous quarter.
• Increased QuickBooks Online subscribers outside of the U.S. by more than 170 percent, to 103,000, further accelerating from last quarter.
• Finished the fiscal quarter with cash and investments of $1.6 billion.

Business Segment Results

Small Business

Total Small Business revenue grew 5 percent.

• Small business online ecosystem revenue grew 30 percent, with customer acquisition continuing to drive growth. QuickBooks desktop ecosystem revenue declined 2 percent, in line with expectations, as the focus continues to shift to QuickBooks Online.
• QuickBooks total paying customers grew 22 percent.
• Online payments charge volume grew 22 percent, driven by an increase in charge volume per customer.
• Online payroll customers grew 24 percent, and full-service payroll customers nearly doubled.
• Demandforce customers grew 27 percent.
• Intuit hosted its inaugural QuickBooks Connect event, a first-of-its-kind event that reached more than 3,500 accounting professionals, small businesses, entrepreneurs and developers.

Consumer and Professional Tax

Intuit’s tax businesses are highly seasonal, and the first fiscal quarter represents a small percentage of annual revenue.

• Within the Consumer segment, Consumer Tax revenue grew 36 percent.
• Professional Tax revenue increased 46 percent.

CFO Remarks

“Our first priority is investing for customer growth,” said Neil Williams, Intuit’s chief financial officer. “Our results this quarter reflect the impact of previously announced changes to our future desktop software offerings. Revenue for those offerings is now recognized as services are delivered, rather than up front.”

Dollars are in millions, except earnings per share (EPS). See “About Non-GAAP Financial Measures” below for more information regarding financial measures not prepared in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). Q1 FY14 GAAP EPS figure includes a gain of $0.16 on the sale of our Intuit Financial Services and Intuit Health discontinued operations. This gain is excluded from non-GAAP EPS. Q1 FY15 results reflect the impact of changes to future desktop software offerings; revenue for those offerings is now recognized as services are delivered, rather than up front.

Capital Allocation Summary

• Ended the first quarter with approximately $1.6 billion in cash and investments.
• Completed two acquisitions totaling approximately $10 million in the first quarter.
• Continued returning cash to shareholders via share repurchases and dividends.
  • In the first quarter, repurchased $114 million of shares; about $1.8 billion remains on the current authorization.
  • Intuit’s board approved a dividend of $0.25 per share for the fiscal second quarter, payable on Jan. 20. This represents a 32 percent increase versus last year.

Forward-looking Guidance

Intuit provided guidance for the second quarter of fiscal year 2015. The company reiterated full-year guidance.

This guidance factors in the company’s strategic decision to deliver ongoing services and releases for its future desktop offerings in order to encourage migration to online solutions. As a result, revenue for future desktop software licenses will be recognized as services are delivered, rather than up front.

For the second quarter of fiscal 2015, Intuit expects:

• Revenue of $780 million to $800 million.
• GAAP operating loss of $120 million to $125 million.
• Non-GAAP operating loss of $45 million to $50 million.
• GAAP loss per share of $0.29 to $0.31.
• Non-GAAP loss per share of $0.11 to $0.13.
• QuickBooks Online subscribers of approximately 800,000.

For the fiscal year 2015, Intuit still expects:

• Revenue of $4.275 billion to $4.375 billion, a decline of 3 percent to 5 percent.
• GAAP operating income of $800 million to $830 million.
• Non-GAAP operating income of $1.11 billion to $1.14 billion.
• GAAP diluted EPS of $1.70 to $1.75.
• Non-GAAP diluted EPS of $2.45 to $2.50.
• QuickBooks Online subscribers of 925,000 to 950,000.

Intuit will provide tax unit updates in February with second quarter earnings, and in late April after the tax season ends.

Conference Call and Replay Information

Intuit executives will discuss the financial results on a conference call today at 1:30 p.m. Pacific time. To hear the call, dial 866-764-6147 in the United States or 973-935-8698 from international locations. No reservation or access code is needed. The conference call can also be heard live at http://investors.intuit.com/events/default.aspx. Prepared remarks for the call will be available on Intuit’s Investor Relations website after the call ends.

Replay Information

A replay of the conference call will be available for one week by calling 888-266-2081, or 703-925-2533 from international locations. The access code for this call is 1647124.

The audio webcast will remain available on Intuit’s website for one week after the conference call.

About Intuit Inc.

Intuit Inc. creates business and financial management solutions that simplify the business of life for small businesses, consumers and accounting professionals.

Its flagship products and services include QuickBooks®, Quicken® and TurboTax®, which make it easier to manage small businesses and payroll processing, personal finance, and tax preparation and filing. Mint.com provides a fresh, easy and intelligent way for people to manage their money, while Demandforce® offers marketing and communication tools for small businesses. ProSeries® and Lacerte® are Intuit's leading tax preparation offerings for professional accountants.

Founded in 1983, Intuit had revenue of $4.5 billion in its fiscal year 2014. The company has approximately 8,000 employees with major offices in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, India and other locations. More information can be found at www.intuit.com.

Intuit and the Intuit logo, among others, are registered trademarks and/or registered service marks of Intuit Inc. in the United States and other countries.

About Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This press release and the accompanying tables include non-GAAP financial measures. For a description of these non-GAAP financial measures, including the reasons management uses each measure, and reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable financial measures prepared in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, please see the section of the accompanying tables titled "About Non-GAAP Financial Measures" as well as the related Table B and Table E. A copy of the press release issued by Intuit today can be found on the investor relations page of Intuit's Web site.

Cautions About Forward-looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including forecasts of expected growth and future financial results of Intuit and its reporting segments; Intuit’s prospects for the business in fiscal 2015 and beyond; expectations regarding growth opportunities from the shift to the cloud; expectations regarding Intuit’s growth outside the US; expectations regarding timing and growth of revenue for each of Intuit’s reporting segments and from current or future products and services; expectations regarding customer growth; expectations regarding changes to our products and their impact on Intuit’s business; expectations regarding the amount and timing of any future dividends or share repurchases; expectations regarding acquisitions and their impact on Intuit’s business; expectations regarding availability of our offerings; and all of the statements under the heading “Forward-looking Guidance.” Because these forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, there are important factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from the expectations expressed in the forward-looking statements. More details about the risks that may impact our business are included in our Form 10-K for fiscal 2014 and in our other SEC filings. You can locate these reports through our website at http://investors.intuit.com. Forward-looking statements are based on information as of Nov. 20, 2014 and we do not undertake any duty to update any forward-looking statement or other information in these materials.

INTUIT INC.

NOTES TO TABLE A

See “About Non-GAAP Financial Measures” immediately following Table E for information on these measures, the items excluded from the most directly comparable GAAP measures in arriving at non-GAAP financial measures, and the reasons management uses each measure and excludes the specified amounts in arriving at each non-GAAP financial measure.

See “About Non-GAAP Financial Measures” immediately following this Table E for information on these measures, the items excluded from the most directly comparable GAAP measures in arriving at non-GAAP financial measures, and the reasons management uses each measure and excludes the specified amounts in arriving at each non-GAAP financial measure.

INTUIT INC.

ABOUT NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES

The accompanying press release dated November 20, 2014 contains non-GAAP financial measures. Table B and Table E reconcile the non-GAAP financial measures in that press release to the most directly comparable financial measures prepared in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). These non-GAAP financial measures include non-GAAP operating income (loss), non-GAAP net income (loss) and non-GAAP net income (loss) per share.

Non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered as a substitute for, or superior to, measures of financial performance prepared in accordance with GAAP. These non-GAAP financial measures do not reflect a comprehensive system of accounting, differ from GAAP measures with the same names and may differ from non-GAAP financial measures with the same or similar names that are used by other companies.

We compute non-GAAP financial measures using the same consistent method from quarter to quarter and year to year. We may consider whether other significant items that arise in the future should be excluded from our non-GAAP financial measures.

We exclude the following items from all of our non-GAAP financial measures:

• Share-based compensation expense
• Amortization of acquired technology
• Amortization of other acquired intangible assets
• Goodwill and intangible asset impairment charges
• Professional fees for business combinations

We also exclude the following items from non-GAAP net income (loss) and diluted net income (loss) per share:

• Gains and losses on debt and equity securities and other investments
• Income tax effects and adjustments
• Discontinued operations

We believe that these non-GAAP financial measures provide meaningful supplemental information regarding Intuit’s operating results primarily because they exclude amounts that we do not consider part of ongoing operating results when planning and forecasting and when assessing the performance of the organization, our individual operating segments or our senior management. Segment managers are not held accountable for share-based compensation expense, amortization, or the other excluded items and, accordingly, we exclude these amounts from our measures of segment performance. We believe that our non-GAAP financial measures also facilitate the comparison by management and investors of results for current periods and guidance for future periods with results for past periods.

The following are descriptions of the items we exclude from our non-GAAP financial measures.

Share-based compensation expenses. These consist of non-cash expenses for stock options, restricted stock units and our Employee Stock Purchase Plan. When considering the impact of equity awards, we place greater emphasis on overall shareholder dilution rather than the accounting charges associated with those awards.

Amortization of acquired technology and amortization of other acquired intangible assets. When we acquire an entity, we are required by GAAP to record the fair values of the intangible assets of the entity and amortize them over their useful lives. Amortization of acquired technology in cost of revenue includes amortization of software and other technology assets of acquired entities. Amortization of other acquired intangible assets in operating expenses includes amortization of assets such as customer lists, covenants not to compete and trade names.

Goodwill and intangible asset impairment charges. We exclude from our non-GAAP financial measures non-cash charges to adjust the carrying values of goodwill and other acquired intangible assets to their estimated fair values.

Professional fees for business combinations. We exclude from our non-GAAP financial measures the professional fees we incur to complete business combinations. These include investment banking, legal and accounting fees.

Gains and losses on debt and equity securities and other investments. We exclude from our non-GAAP financial measures gains and losses that we record when we sell or impair available-for-sale debt and equity securities and other investments.

Income tax effects and adjustments. During fiscal 2014, we excluded from our non-GAAP financial measures the income tax effects of the non-GAAP pre-tax adjustments described above, as well as income tax effects related to business combinations. In addition, the effects of one-time income tax adjustments recorded in a specific quarter for GAAP purposes were reflected on a forecasted basis in our non-GAAP financial measures. This was consistent with how we were evaluating our operating results and planning, forecasting, and evaluating future periods during that fiscal year.

During fiscal 2015, we began using a long-term non-GAAP tax rate for evaluating operating results and for planning, forecasting, and analyzing future periods. This long-term non-GAAP tax rate excludes the income tax effects of the non-GAAP pre-tax adjustments described above, assumes the federal research and experimentation credit is continuously in effect, and eliminates the effects of non-recurring and period specific items which can vary in size and frequency. Based on our current long-term projections, we are using a long-term non-GAAP tax rate of 34% which is consistent with the average of our normalized fiscal year tax rate over a four year period that includes the past three fiscal years plus the current fiscal year forecast. We will evaluate this long-term non-GAAP tax rate on an annual basis and whenever any significant events occur which may materially affect this long-term rate. This long-term non-GAAP tax rate could be subject to change for various reasons including significant changes in our geographic earnings mix or fundamental tax law changes in major jurisdictions in which we operate.

Operating results and gains and losses on the sale of discontinued operations. From time to time, we sell or otherwise dispose of selected operations as we adjust our portfolio of businesses to meet our strategic goals. In accordance with GAAP, we segregate the operating results of discontinued operations as well as gains and losses on the sale of these discontinued operations from continuing operations on our GAAP statements of operations but continue to include them in GAAP net income or loss and net income or loss per share. We exclude these amounts from our non-GAAP financial measures.

The reconciliations of the forward-looking non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures in Table E include all information reasonably available to Intuit at the date of this press release. These tables include adjustments that we can reasonably predict. Events that could cause the reconciliation to change include acquisitions and divestitures of businesses, goodwill and other asset impairments, and sales of available-for-sale debt securities and other investments.