Intuit just delivered one of the more unusual earnings reports of the year: a genuine beat on the numbers, followed by a double-digit stock drop anyway.

The company behind TurboTax and QuickBooks posted fiscal fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of $4.03 a share on revenue of $4.35 billion, topping Wall Street's expectations of $3.58 a share and $4.27 billion, respectively. But the guidance for the coming fiscal year told a different story: Intuit projected revenue growth of just 9% to 10%, down sharply from 14% growth the year before, and earnings per share of $22.88 to $23.12 — well short of the $27.30-plus analysts had penciled in, according to an earnings call transcript published by Investing.com.

Shares fell more than 7% in after-hours trading following the report, extending a brutal year for the stock, which is down more than 40% year-to-date and trading near its lowest level in five years.

"Price Is the Number 1 Reason Customers Leave"

What spooked investors most wasn't the miss on guidance — it was how directly Intuit's own leadership described the problem. Company executives said price is now the top reason TurboTax customers walk away, and acknowledged the company has been losing ground specifically among filers earning under $50,000 a year, a segment increasingly drawn to free or low-cost filing alternatives. In response, Intuit says it plans to deliberately cut prices on its do-it-yourself filing products in the coming year to try to win those customers back, citing weaker sales at Mailchimp and a continued decline in desktop products as additional drags on next year's outlook.

"PRICE IS NOW THE NUMBER 1 REASON CUSTOMERS LEAVE TURBOTAX"

It's a rare moment of public self-criticism from a company that has long dominated the tax-prep market and fought hard — including in Washington — to protect that position. TurboTax has faced years of criticism and regulatory scrutiny over its pricing tactics, including a 2022 settlement in which Intuit paid $141 million to settle claims it steered low-income customers away from genuinely free filing options.

The selloff also lands amid a broader rough patch for legacy software companies as investors chase AI-native upstarts and free or freemium tools eat into once-reliable subscription revenue. Intuit executives say they're leaning further into AI-powered features across TurboTax and QuickBooks to try to justify the price gap — but for now, the company itself is conceding that cutting prices, not adding features, is the more urgent fix. The company's next earnings report, expected in November, will be the first real test of whether the new pricing strategy is working.