Intuit Inc. (INTU) offers small business accounting, personal finance, and tax preparation software to accountants, small businesses, and consumers. Yesterday, the company reported fourth-quarter revenue of $475.7 million, essentially flat with year-ago period.

Intuit saw a fall in sales growth from tax software as the number of tax filers did not increase as per historical levels. Operating expenses rose 3.3% from the year-ago quarter. On a GAAP basis, net loss increased to $116 million, or 22 cents per share, compared to a loss of $94 million, or 19 cents per share, a year ago. On a non-GAAP basis, net loss of 10 cents per share was much better than the Zacks Consensus Estimate of a loss of 19 cents.

For fiscal 2009, revenue of $3.183 billion was up 4% from a year ago, driven by Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings and related services that solve customer problems.

...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – July 17, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the latest Industry Outlook. Today’s outlook from Zacks Equity Research analyst Abdul Saleh discusses the Software sector. Highlighted stocks include: SAP (SAP), Fiserv (FISV), Intuit (INTU), Digital River (DRIV) and VeriSign Automotive (VRSN).

Here is the latest on the Software sector:

While most software companies are implementing a series of internal cost-cutting measures, these are steps that companies typically take in an economic downturn -- a hiring freeze, no non-essential travel, and so on. Generally speaking, a downturn is when investment in IT is most critical because these investments can make operations more efficient. This idea is one reason why we think that the tech sector would weather a downturn better than other parts of the economy.

Software giant SAP (SAP) is apparently not halting

...

Outlook Global markets appear to be shaking off the recent unprecedented withering of the financial system and are looking for an upturn. But is it sustainable or is it a short-term event? So far, a string of drastic actions by the Federal Reserve and both the Bush and Obama administrations has yet to turn around a bunker mentality. Banks fear lending money to each other and to their customers. Businesses are reluctant to hire and boost capital investments. Consumers have hunkered down. All the economy's problems are feeding off each other, creating a vicious cycle that Washington policymakers are finding difficult to break. Even if the turmoil gripping Wall Street were to let up and badly shaken confidence in the banking system were fully restored, a "broader economic recovery will not happen right away." Obviously, the technology industry is not immune to the current economic ...

The market is showing signs of relief as the major indices have experienced some great up days despite a lack of positive news regarding our economy.  As an investor, you maybe wondering what your options are to return to the equity market with as much prudence as possible.  The first thing to note is that the IT S&P 500 Component has done extremely well, up 11.80% YTD.  A great way to re-enter IT is through the purchase of well constructed Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). ETFs are a great way to capture the upside potential of various companies while maintaining diversity within your IT portfolio (or any portfolio).  The key to ETF evaluation is to select low cost and well constructed ETFs making it important to conduct due diligence on the major underlying securities of the vehicle.  ETFs can

...

Monday:Economic Empire (-26), Cap U & IP (76.6%, -0.1%)Earnings Lowe’s (LOW), Target (TGT), Ctrip.com (CTRP)Tuesday:Economic PPI & Core (0.2%, -1.5%)Earnings China Med (CMED), Home Depot (HD), Medtronic (MDT), ReneSola (SOL), Saks (SKS), Jack In The Box (JBX), La-Z-Boy (LZB)Wednesday:Economic Weekly Crude, Build P’s & Housing (770K, 780K), CPI & Core (0.2%, -0.8%), FOMC MinutesEarnings BJ’s (BJ), LDK Solar (LDK), Ross (ROST), Trina (TSL), Dress Barn (DBRN), Gymboree (GYMB), Hot Topic (HOTT), Intuit (INTU), Limited (LTD), Men’s Wearhouse (MW), PETsMART (PETM), Woodward Governor (WGOV)Thursday:Economic Weekly Claims, Leading Indicators (-0.6%), Philly Fed (-30.0)Earnings Barnes & Noble (BKS), Children’s Place (PLCE), Dick’s (DKS), Gamestop (GME), Pantry (PTRY), Patterson (PDCO), Suntech Power (STP), Yingli Green (YGE), Buckle (BKE), Autodesk (ADSK), Dell (DELL), Gap (GPS), J. Crew (JCG), Salesforce (CRM), Zumiez (ZUMZ)Friday:Economic NAEarnings AnnTaylor (ANN), Canadian Solar ...

INSIDERS are SELLING TONS OF SHARES:

Track these sales at:

http://trackthepros.com/categories.php?category_id=337

COMPANY NAME INSIDERS NAME TITLE $ VALUE NO. OF SHARES IN TRANS. RANGE OF VALUES TRANSACTIONS DATES Intuit S. Cook OD $15,150,750 500,000 30.30 Aug. 26, 2008 Intuit S. Bennett D 10,229,060 337,566 30.30 Aug. 26, 2008 Superior Energy Services K. Blanchard P 7,733,434 165,000 46.21-48.13 Aug. 22-25, 2008 Hasbro A. Hassenfeld DO 5,620,132 155,600...

Earnings started positively this week after the biggest mining group BHP Billiton posted today record earnings and increased dividend. Another interesting earnings this week I will be watching are Hewlett Packard and Home Depot.Monday:Economic NAEarnings BHP Billiton (BHP), Lowe’s (LOW), Trina Solar (TSL)Tuesday:Economic Housing Starts & Bldg P’s (963K, 949K), PPI & Core (0.6%, 0.2%)Earnings Home Depot (HD), Medtronic (MDT), ReneSola (SOL), Saks (SKS), Target (TGT), Analog Devices (ADI), Hewlett (HPQ), Open Text (OTEX), DryShips (DRYS)Wednesday:Economic Weekly CrudeEarnings BJ’s (BJ), Ross Stores (ROST), Suntech (STP), Citi Trends (CTRN), Gymboree (GYMB), Limited (LTD), JD Uniphase (JDSU), Salesforce (CRM)Thursday:Economic Weekly Claims, Leading Indicators (-0.2%), Philly Fed (-14.1)Earnings Barnes & Noble (BKS), Burger King (BKC), Children’s Place (PLCE), Dick’s Sport (DKS), Gamestop (GME), Heinz (HNZ), Hormel (HRL), Patterson (PDCO), Toro (TTC), Aeropostale (ARO), Blue Coat (BCSI), Intuit ...

After the highly successful VMware (VMW) IPO last week, which saw the price of the stock nearly double in just two trading sessions, it appears that tech IPOs are hot once again and there are some interesting ones that are currently in the pipeline. Located close to each other in San Mateo, California, NetSuite and Success Factors are two such companies that have filed to go public in the near future. Apart from their location these companies also have one more thing in common. Both of them are Software-as-a- Service (SaaS) providers or in the outdated pre-2000 jargon, Application Service Providers (ASP).