Intuit hits a record milestone of $20 billion in revenue—and sets the stage for a strategic pullback — Fortune

RESOLVING THE LEDGER

Intuit hits a record milestone of $20 billion in revenue—and sets the stage for a strategic pullback — Fortune | AIPROPX

Good morning. Intuit closed fiscal 2026 with numbers that would make most software companies celebrate. But the company is entering fiscal 2027 with a different priority: rebuilding customer acquisition, even if that means sacrificing revenue growth in the near term.

For its fiscal fourth quarter, reported Tuesday, Intuit ( No. 231 on the Fortune 500) posted revenue of $4.354 billion, ahead of Wall Street’s $4.268 billion estimate, with earnings per share of $4.03 versus the $3.58 analysts expected. That capped a fiscal year in which the company crossed $20 billion in annual revenue for the first time, beating guidance and consensus across every metric.

The growth engine was Intuit’s “Big Bets”—Assisted Tax, Money and Mid-Market—which collectively grew 34% and now account for 30% of total revenue. Yet investors focused less on what Intuit accomplished than on what comes next. Shares closed down 3.37% at $357.46, then fell roughly 9% more in after-hours trading to $323.94 after Intuit issued fiscal 2027 guidance calling for revenue of $23.28 billion to $23.51 billion, below Wall Street’s $23.72 billion estimate.

The paradox: Intuit is deliberately accepting a near-term hit to revenue per customer in one of its biggest businesses in exchange for something it believes matters more over time—faster customer growth. The company attributed the expected deceleration to a projected decline in the Desktop ecosystem, softness at Mailchimp, and a decision to accept lower average revenue per customer in TurboTax upfront to accelerate acquisition.

CEO Sasan Goodarzi framed the guidance cut as a strategic reset. “I’m resetting expectations for the company because this is the perfect time to do it, where we can play offense,” he told analysts. Goodarzi pointed to two priorities: continuing to scale the Big Bets, which he expects to remain Intuit’s fastest-growing businesses, while reaccelerating new-customer acquisition—a muscle he acknowledged had atrophied as Intuit built out its agentic “financial intelligence layer” platform.

“We’re really doubling down in core areas where I’m personally dissatisfied and hold myself accountable for the lack of performance, which is DIY tax, and on the low end in the business group,” he said.

Years ago, he noted, TurboTax grew customers at double-digit rates, and the business group grew customers north of 20%. Intuit believes it can invest in its fastest-growing businesses while rebuilding the customer-acquisition engine in its core franchises.

AI with context

In my conversation with CFO Sandeep Aujla, he described the strategy as a “reset to reaccelerate,” calling fiscal 2026 “a testament to our strategy” while acknowledging the pivot ahead. “At a $20 billion-plus scale, we have to be able to do both,” Aujla said.

That extends to AI. Intuit believes its expanding AI capabilities can help defend its core businesses against generalized AI tools. Aujla pointed to Intuit Intelligent Chat for mid-market businesses as an example. The company’s argument: AI alone isn’t the differentiator; the advantage comes from combining AI with the domain expertise embedded in Intuit’s existing workflows. In highly regulated, high-stakes areas, customers need more than a general-purpose AI model.

A generalized LLM might answer a business question, but Intuit wants to be the system that understands the context behind it, he said.

In fiscal 2027, Intuit is predicting slower growth while it spends to acquire customers, betting it can generate more value over time. If it sacrifices revenue per customer today, it needs to show customer growth accelerating enough to make up the difference. Aujla said the company is prepared to keep investing for that outcome.

Sheryl Estrada [email protected]

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com