Intuit: Making Tax Accounting Sexy

Jefferies said in a comment Thursday Intuit Inc. INTU adds excitement to tax and accounting. The firm expects the company to extend its nine-year streak of positive returns.

As such, Jefferies initiated coverage of Intuit at Buy, with a $157 price target.

Analysts Brent Thill and John Byun indicated that Intuit's two flagship products, namely TurboTax for consumer tax and Quick Books for small business accounting have been generally stable contributors over the years. The two products, according to the analysts have 95 percentage, plus, revenue contribution in the U.S.

See also: Here's What Happened Last Time The U.S. Implemented Major Corporate Tax Reform

Thill and Byun expects the accelerating user adoption of the two products, especially outside of the U.S. to spur another leg of growth. Clarifying further, the analysts noted that the growth in international QuickBooks Online subscribers accelerated to 75 percent year over year in the fiscal fourth quarter.

Jefferies said the growth was made possible due to the maturing of the second generation Cloud accounting product, the more flexible and global architecture of QuickBooks Online and the secular boom in self-employed small businesses.

On TurboTax, the firm said it is growing at a healthy 9 percent in 2017 and has been highly profitable.

"We forecast growth can continue at 7-9% with potential for upside. Mgmt's LT growth forecast has a range of 5-10%, with the strongest driver being a shift in tax prep category to DIY," the firm added.

Jefferies also referred to the company's shareholder friendly policies, including financial discipline, sizeable stock buybacks and increasing dividends.

The firm also said the valuation of Intuit is justified by its high quality fundamentals, consistency and accelerating momentum.