Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ:INTU)

Return on Assets (ROA)

The return on assets exhibited considerable variability over the analyzed periods. Beginning at a high point of 20.26% in October 2020, it declined sharply to 8.26% by January 2022. After this point, ROA fluctuated within a relatively narrow range, mostly between approximately 7% and 10%. In the most recent quarters, there has been a gradual upward trend, culminating in an increase to 12.41% by October 2025. This suggests a recovery in asset efficiency following a period of contraction.

Financial Leverage

Financial leverage was somewhat variable yet remained within a moderate range throughout the periods observed. Starting at 1.85 in October 2020, leverage decreased to around 1.53 by October 2021, indicating a reduction in debt relative to equity. After this reduction, leverage saw a tendency to increase, reaching a peak of 1.88 by July 2025 before slightly decreasing again to 1.72 by October 2025. This pattern indicates a cautious approach towards leveraging, with periods of both deleveraging and modest re-leveraging.

Return on Equity (ROE)

Return on equity followed a trend that reflects variations in both asset efficiency and financial leverage. Initially, ROE was quite high at 37.5% in October 2020 but declined sharply to a range between 11.69% and 16.38% from late 2021 through early 2024. Starting around mid-2024, ROE shows a steady increase, reaching 21.31% by October 2025. This upward movement signals improving profitability from the shareholders' perspective, driven possibly by both operational improvements and strategic use of leverage.

Overall Insights

The data indicate a period of contraction in key profitability metrics in the first half of the timeline, followed by a stabilization and gradual improvement in later quarters. The initial decline in both ROA and ROE suggests challenges in asset utilization and profit generation, whereas the moderated but increasing financial leverage hints at a balanced strategy to optimize capital structure. The recent upward trends in ROA and ROE imply enhanced operational performance and a more effective employment of financial resources into profitability.

The financial data reveals various trends in the company’s profitability, efficiency, leverage, and overall equity returns over multiple quarterly periods.

Net Profit Margin

The net profit margin started at a strong 25.1% and experienced a noticeable decline during the earlier periods, reaching a low of 14.1%. After this dip, there was a gradual recovery with margins slowly increasing and stabilizing around 18-21% in the most recent quarters, suggesting improved profitability management over time following the earlier contraction.

Asset Turnover

This ratio, reflecting efficiency in using assets to generate sales, exhibited a relatively volatile pattern initially, moving between 0.81 and 0.43 in the earlier periods. Over time, it stabilized in the range of approximately 0.5 to 0.54 with some fluctuations. This indicates that asset utilization efficiency was somewhat inconsistent initially but has become more consistent and moderate in recent periods.

Financial Leverage

Financial leverage showed moderate variability, starting at 1.85, decreasing to around 1.53-1.69 in middle periods, then increasing again to as high as 1.88 before dipping slightly. This suggests some fluctuations in the use of debt relative to equity but generally a moderate leverage position maintained throughout the timeline, with a tendency towards a slight increase in leverage towards the end.

Return on Equity (ROE)

The ROE trend is characterized by an initial steep decline from a high 37.5% to a low near 11.7%, mirroring the patterns observed in both net profit margin and asset turnover. Subsequently, a steady rise occurred, moving back upwards close to 21.3% in the latest quarter. The recovery suggests an improvement in the company's ability to generate returns on shareholder equity after a period of reduced performance.

In summary, the company experienced a period of declining profitability and efficiency early in the examined timeline, with both net profit margin and ROE reaching significant lows. Following this period, gradual improvements have been noted across profitability metrics and returns to equity, despite relatively stable asset turnover and moderate fluctuations in financial leverage. This pattern indicates operational recovery and potentially better management of cost and asset utilization, along with carefully managed financial structure adjustments over time.

Tax Burden

The tax burden ratio has remained relatively stable throughout the periods, fluctuating slightly between 0.79 and 0.84. There is a subtle downward trend in the later periods, indicating a minor reduction in the proportion of earnings taken by taxes.

Interest Burden

The interest burden ratio shows a gradual decline from 0.99 in early periods to around 0.92-0.95 in the later ones. This suggests an increasing impact of interest expenses on earnings before tax, though the decline stabilizes in more recent periods.

EBIT Margin

The EBIT margin exhibits notable fluctuation. Initially high at around 30.7%, it declines sharply to a low near 18.47% during the middle periods before recovering moderately to near 27.93% at the end. This pattern reflects a period of margin compression followed by gradual improvement in operating profitability.

Asset Turnover

Asset turnover shows variability with an initial decrease from 0.81 down to approximately 0.43-0.46 in the mid periods. Afterwards, it demonstrates a modest recovery and relative stabilization around 0.5 to 0.59 in the most recent quarters, indicating a fluctuation in the efficiency of asset use to generate revenue.

Financial Leverage

The financial leverage ratio generally trends upwards, starting near 1.53-1.85 and reaching approximately 1.88 in later periods. This upward movement indicates an increasing use of debt relative to equity over time, suggesting a greater reliance on leverage.

Return on Equity (ROE)

Return on Equity has varied significantly, peaking at 37.5% in the earliest period before dropping to a low near 11.69% in the mid periods. Subsequently, ROE gradually improves to reach above 21% toward the end. The trend reflects an initial strong profitability that weakened considerably before beginning a recovery phase aligned with improvements in operational efficiency and margin recovery.

The analysis of the quarterly financial data reveals notable trends in profitability, asset utilization, and overall efficiency as measured by key financial ratios over the reported periods.

Net Profit Margin

The net profit margin exhibits a downward trend from late 2020 through early 2023, decreasing from 25.1% to a low point near 14.1%. This decline indicates a compression of profitability over several quarters. However, starting in the first quarter of 2023, the margin begins a gradual recovery, increasing steadily to reach 21.19% by late 2025, suggesting improvements in cost control or revenue quality in later periods.

Asset Turnover

Asset turnover shows variability throughout the timeframe. It starts relatively strong at 0.81 in late 2020 but declines sharply to around 0.43 by early 2022. Despite this initial decrease, asset turnover remains fairly stable with minor fluctuations, generally oscillating between 0.49 and 0.59 from 2023 onwards. This pattern indicates that after a period of less efficient asset use, the company maintains a more consistent level of asset productivity in subsequent years.

Return on Assets (ROA)

Return on assets follows a somewhat analogous pattern to net profit margin. From a high point of 20.26% in late 2020, ROA falls considerably, hitting lows below 7% around late 2022. Subsequently, ROA trends upward from early 2023, climbing gradually to 12.41% by the middle of 2025. This recovery suggests enhanced combined profitability and asset efficiency, further corroborating the improvement seen in net profit margin and stabilization in asset turnover.

Overall, the financial ratios indicate an initial period of declining profitability and efficiency from 2020 through early 2023, followed by a sustained recovery phase. Improvements in profit margins and ROA concurrent with stabilized asset turnover in the latter part of the period suggest operational enhancements and potentially effective management initiatives implemented to reverse earlier declines.

Tax Burden

The tax burden ratio remained relatively stable, fluctuating slightly between 0.79 and 0.84 over the observed periods. Initially steady near 0.82, it dipped modestly in early 2023 to around 0.77 and then returned to the 0.83 range before settling just below 0.80 toward the end. This suggests consistent tax efficiency with minor variations.

Interest Burden

The interest burden ratio exhibited a gradual decline from 0.99 to around 0.92 between late 2020 and mid-2023, indicating a slight increase in interest expense relative to earnings before interest and taxes. From mid-2023 onward, the ratio stabilized near 0.94 to 0.95, reflecting modest improvements in managing interest costs.

EBIT Margin

The EBIT margin showed a generally downward trend from approximately 30.7% at the start to a low near 18.5% in late 2022, marking a significant compression in operating profitability. However, after this low point, the margin steadily improved, reaching nearly 28% in the last period. This pattern reflects initial challenges in maintaining operating earnings, followed by a recovery phase.

Asset Turnover

The asset turnover ratio displayed some volatility with a decrease from 0.81 to around 0.43 by early 2022, indicating declining efficiency in generating revenue from assets. Subsequently, the ratio gradually increased, fluctuating in the 0.5 range and peaking near 0.59 toward the latest period. This trend suggests a partial recovery in asset utilization efficiency after a period of deterioration.

Return on Assets (ROA)

ROA declined notably from above 20% to below 7% over 2020 to late 2022, reflecting notable reductions in asset profitability. This was followed by a gradual recovery trend, with ROA improving steadily to above 12% in recent quarters. The return to higher levels indicates effective measures to enhance asset profitability after prior declines.

The analysis of the financial ratios over the series of quarters reveals several distinct trends and fluctuations that reflect the company's operational efficiency, cost management, and profitability over time.

Tax Burden

The tax burden ratio generally remained stable, fluctuating slightly around the range of 0.79 to 0.84. Beginning at 0.82 in the earliest quarter, there was a slight increase reaching a peak of 0.84 before gradually decreasing to a value close to 0.79 towards the final quarters. This pattern suggests a relatively consistent tax expense relative to pre-tax earnings, indicating stable tax conditions or effective tax planning strategies over the analyzed periods.

Interest Burden

The interest burden ratio showed a subtle but steady decline throughout the periods analyzed. Starting near 0.99, it decreased gradually to about 0.92 to 0.95 in the middle quarters and stabilized around 0.94 to 0.95 in the later periods. This trend suggests a slight increase in interest expenses over earnings before interest and taxes, potentially reflecting rising debt servicing costs or changes in capital structure.

EBIT Margin (%)

The EBIT margin demonstrated variability with an overall declining trend from over 30% down to a low near 18.5%, followed by a recovery toward nearly 28% in the final reported quarters. The initial decline might indicate rising operating costs or decreased operating efficiency, while the recovery phase could suggest successful margin management initiatives or improved revenue quality.

Net Profit Margin (%)

The net profit margin echoed a similar trajectory to the EBIT margin, starting at a high of around 25%, dipping to approximately 14% at its lowest, and then gradually improving back to above 21% near the end of the timeframe. This indicates that net profitability was impacted by both operating factors and other expenses such as interest and taxes but showed resilience and improvement in the latter periods analyzed.

Overall, the company's profitability metrics experienced a notable decline in the middle quarters but showed signs of recovery in the later periods. The tax burden ratio remained fairly constant, while the interest burden slightly increased, which may have influenced the net profit margins. The patterns suggest effective cost and margin management in recent quarters after a period of pressure on earnings.