Find out why Intuit's -24.1% return over the last year is lagging behind its peers.
A Discounted Cash Flow model takes estimates of the cash a company could generate in the future and discounts those back to what they might be worth today, using a required rate of return.
For Intuit, the model used is a 2 Stage Free Cash Flow to Equity approach, based on cash flow projections rather than earnings. The latest twelve month free cash flow is about $6.76b, and analyst based and extrapolated projections suggest free cash flow reaching around $11.75b by 2030, with a series of interim forecasts between 2026 and 2035 that are discounted back to today in the model.
Putting these projections together, the DCF output points to an estimated intrinsic value of about $772.29 per share. Compared with the recent share price of $455.56, this implies an intrinsic discount of roughly 41.0%, which indicates the stock screens as undervalued on this model.
Result: UNDERVALUED
Our Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) analysis suggests Intuit is undervalued by 41.0%. Track this in your watchlist or portfolio, or discover 52 more high quality undervalued stocks.
For a profitable company like Intuit, the P/E ratio is a useful way to think about what you are paying for each dollar of current earnings. It reflects both what the market expects from future growth and how much risk investors are willing to accept for those earnings.
Higher expected growth and lower perceived risk usually support a higher, or more generous, P/E ratio, while slower growth or higher risk tend to justify a lower multiple. With that in mind, it helps to compare Intuit's current P/E to a few reference points.
Intuit trades at a P/E of 29.03x. This is close to the broader Software industry average P/E of 29.01x, and below the peer group average of 45.44x. This suggests peers are priced more richly on earnings.
Simply Wall St's Fair Ratio for Intuit is 35.74x. This is a proprietary estimate of what P/E might be reasonable given factors such as Intuit's earnings growth profile, profit margins, industry, market cap and specific risks. Because it blends these drivers directly, the Fair Ratio can be more tailored than a simple comparison with peers or the industry alone.
Comparing the Fair Ratio of 35.74x with the actual P/E of 29.03x points to Intuit trading below that fair level on this metric.
Result: UNDERVALUED
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Earlier it was mentioned that there is an even better way to think about valuation, and on Simply Wall St this shows up as Narratives. These are simple, user created stories that connect your view of Intuit's business to a set of numbers such as future revenue, earnings, margins and a Fair Value that you can compare to the current share price.
A Narrative lets you spell out the story you believe, link that story to a forecast, and then see the implied Fair Value so you can quickly judge whether the price you see on screen looks high, low or roughly in line with your expectations.
These Narratives live inside the Simply Wall St Community page. They are designed to be easy to use and update automatically when new earnings, news or guidance are fed into the platform, so your Fair Value view moves as fresh information comes through instead of sitting frozen in time.
For Intuit, one Narrative on Simply Wall St might anchor on a Fair Value of about US$330 per share with more cautious assumptions. Another might point to around US$861 per share with more optimistic assumptions, and comparing those Fair Values to the current price helps you decide whether your own Intuit story leads you toward patience or toward acting on what you see.
Do you think there's more to the story for Intuit? Head over to our Community to see what others are saying!
This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.
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