Intuit will stop taking share-based compensation out of its adjusted numbers, and the fiscal 2027 guidance it published on Tuesday is measured against a base $2,056m lower than the one it reported
Share-based compensation is the most common thing a technology company takes out of its adjusted profit. Intuit is putting it back.
The company said on Tuesday, in the release attached to its fourth quarter results, that from 1 August share-based compensation expense will no longer be excluded from its non-GAAP financial measures. Its stated reason is that it views the expense as a recurring component of the compensation program, and believes including it reflects core operating results.
The sum involved is $2,056m for the year just ended.
What the restatement does to the guidance
Intuit reported non-GAAP operating income of $8,935m for fiscal 2026, up 18 percent. For fiscal 2027 it guides the same measure to between $8,063m and $8,145m, and puts that at growth of 17 to 18 percent.
Those two statements only sit together on a restated base. Take the $2,056m of share-based compensation back out of the exclusion and fiscal 2026 non-GAAP operating income becomes $6,879m. Against that, $8,063m is up 17.2 percent and $8,145m is up 18.4 percent, which is the guided range.
Against the $8,935m the company published for fiscal 2026, the same guidance is about 9 percent lower.
The release is explicit about the split rather than quiet about it. A footnote to the exclusion list states that historical results in the reconciliation tables still exclude share-based compensation while the forward-looking guidance includes it, and the guidance table carries a note putting $2,020m of share-based compensation inside the fiscal 2027 non-GAAP operating income range and a $5.81 per share effect inside the earnings guidance.
The GAAP line is untouched by any of it. Operating income on that basis was $5.9bn in fiscal 2026 and is guided to $7,408m to $7,490m, up 26 to 27 percent.
Mailchimp comes out on the same day
The second change was announced in the paragraph above the first. From 1 August the company began managing Mailchimp as a separate operating segment from Global Business Solutions, and it will be a separate reportable segment from fiscal 2027.
The guidance shows what is being carved out. Mailchimp is guided to revenue of $1,256m to $1,266m, which the table puts at minus 1 percent to zero. The company gives that growth rate without giving the base, and the range implies a fiscal 2026 figure of roughly $1.26bn to $1.27bn.
Everything around it is guided to grow faster. Global Business Solutions, the segment Mailchimp is leaving, is guided up 13 to 14 percent.
The release had been printing the difference all year. Global Business Solutions revenue rose 16 percent in fiscal 2026, and 18 percent excluding Mailchimp. Online Ecosystem rose 19 percent, and 23 percent excluding Mailchimp. Online Services rose 16 percent, and 24 percent excluding Mailchimp. The same gap runs through the fourth quarter, at 14 against 15, 17 against 20, and 15 against 21.
The rest of the year
Total revenue was $21.4bn, up 14 percent, with the fourth quarter at $4.4bn on the same growth rate. GAAP earnings per share were $16.46, up 20 percent, on 277 million average diluted shares.
Intuit repurchased $5.5bn of stock during the year, which it puts at 96 percent more than the year before, and has $7.9bn of authorisation left. Cash and investments closed at $7.2bn against total debt of $7.7bn, after $1.75bn of senior notes issued in June. The board declared a quarterly dividend of $1.38 a share, payable on 16 October to holders of record on 8 October, filed as a separate item on the same report.
Share-based compensation itself rose 4.5 percent over the year, from $1,968m to $2,056m.


