Best Tax Season Play: Intuit's Turbo Tax Vs. HR Block Vs. Liberty Tax

The holiday shopping season may be the biggest time of year for retailers, but tax season is critical for tax services companies H & R Block Inc (NYSE: HRB), Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU) and Liberty Tax Inc (NASDAQ: TAX). Here’s a look at how all three stocks stack up ahead of this year’s filing deadline.

From a valuation perspective, Liberty Tax’s minuscule 8.5 forward PE puts it ahead of both H&R Block (12.3) and Intuit (23.7) in terms of value.

A Look Forward

Looking ahead, Intuit and Liberty both have projected five-year earnings growth rates of around 17.5 percent. H&R Block’s projected growth is 10 percent.

In terms of momentum, Intuit has been leading the pack in the past year. Intuit shares are up 27.6 percent, while Liberty and H&R Block are down 25.1 and 39.3 percent, respectively.

If you ask Wall Street, Liberty currently has the most upside in the near term. According to CNN Money, analysts see 27.2 percent upside for Liberty based on its average price target. Analysts see 15.2 percent upside for H&R Block and 1.5 percent upside for intuit.

When incorporating value, growth, momentum and analyst estimates, it seems Liberty Tax may be the stock that will get investors the biggest tax return in 2017.

Image Credit: Coolcaesar at en.wikipedia [CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL], via Wikimedia Commons