Intuit Tops Profit Forecasts

Intuit shares rose Friday morning after the company topped analysts' expectations on "strong" sales of its tax products.

Best known for its Quicken and TurboTax products, the company (INTU) said after the market closed Thursday that it earned $1.34 per share for its fiscal second quarter - 4 cents better than the First Call consensus estimate.

Revenue surged 46 percent to $346 million, led by sales of its tax-reparation software, the Mountain View, Calif.-based company said in a press release.

Intuit also said it sold 450,000 shares of Excite Inc. at an average price of 94 1/8 and arranged to sell the remaining stake, which totals more than 5 million shares.

About 18 months ago, Intuit paid $40 million for 2.9 million shares of Excite, the third-largest search engine, which is in a pending acquisition by AtHome. Since that time, Excite (XCIT) has split its stock, giving Intuit 5.8 million shares. Intuit's stake is worth about $520 million.

Intuit shares added 2 5/16 to 91 7/8 while Excite shares rose 1 3/16 to 100.

Written By Brenon Daly, CBS MarketWatch