Intuit earnings: 20 cents a share vs 17 cents EPS expected

Intuit reported quarterly earnings and revenue that beat analysts' expectations on Tuesday.

Here's how the company did compared to what Wall Street expected:

• EPS: 20 cents vs. 17 cents expected, according to Thomson Reuters
• Revenue: $842 million vs. $804.6 million expected, according to Thomson Reuters

For the fiscal first quarter, the company said it expects earnings between 3 cents and 5 cents a share. That range fell well below analyst projections for about 11 cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters.

Shares of Intuit fell more than 1 percent in extended trading after the company released the report.

Intuit also announced that Chief Financial Officer Neil Williams will step down in January. Michelle Clatterbuck, currently the senior vice president of finance for Intuit's consumer tax group, is slated to become the next CFO.

"We are fortunate to have benefited from Neil's leadership for more than a decade," said Intuit CEO Brad Smith.

The company reports that self-employed subscribers increased approximately 390,000 in the fourth quarter. QuickBooks subscribers grew 58 percent during the fiscal year to 2.38 million.

Non-GAAP earnings per share shot up 150 percent from the fourth quarter of 2016, and revenue rose 12 percent from year to year.

Some analysts have labeled Intuit an "anti-Trump stock." They argue that if President administration succeeds in simplifying the tax code, the demand for products such as TurboTax should decline.

Citigroup downgraded the stock to neutral from buy in June, citing numbers challenges and a tougher tax set-up, and cut its price target by $7 to $141.

But broader market optimism has helped lift shares of Intuit. The California-based company's stock has increased about 20 percent so far this year, while the S&P 500 has increased nearly 10 percent.

Intuit's stock has grown more than 4 percent since the company's better-than-expected third-quarter earnings release on May 23.