Middleton & Co. Inc. MA Grows Position in Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU)

Middleton & Co. Inc. MA boosted its holdings in shares of Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU) by 1.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 24,992 shares of the software maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 251 shares during the quarter. Intuit makes up about 1.7% of Middleton & Co. Inc. MA’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 15th biggest position. Middleton & Co. Inc. MA’s holdings in Intuit were worth $15,708,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. R Squared Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Intuit in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Heck Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Intuit in the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. bought a new position in Intuit in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Sugar Maple Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Intuit during the fourth quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, Denver PWM LLC purchased a new position in shares of Intuit during the third quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Institutional investors own 83.66% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the company. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on Intuit from $795.00 to $725.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Scotiabank decreased their price target on shares of Intuit from $700.00 to $600.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Oppenheimer raised their target price on shares of Intuit from $712.00 to $722.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. BNP Paribas downgraded Intuit from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $530.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Intuit from $800.00 to $775.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and fourteen have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $717.88.

Intuit Stock Performance

Shares of Intuit stock opened at $613.84 on Friday. Intuit Inc. has a one year low of $553.24 and a one year high of $714.78. The company has a market capitalization of $171.82 billion, a PE ratio of 59.60, a P/E/G ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.24. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $605.90 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $627.25.

Intuit Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be given a dividend of $1.04 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This represents a $4.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.68%. Intuit’s payout ratio is 38.81%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Intuit news, CAO Lauren D. Hotz sold 1,078 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $619.28, for a total value of $667,583.84. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 1,864 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,154,337.92. This trade represents a 36.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Mark P. Notarainni sold 3,649 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $646.68, for a total transaction of $2,359,735.32. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 19 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,286.92. The trade was a 99.48 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 218,014 shares of company stock valued at $140,855,687. 2.68% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

About Intuit

Intuit Inc provides financial management and compliance products and services for consumers, small businesses, self-employed, and accounting professionals in the United States, Canada, and internationally. The company operates in four segments: Small Business & Self-Employed, Consumer, Credit Karma, and ProTax.