What Happened?
A number of stocks fell in the afternoon session after Intuit's plunge spread across the sector and reignited the thesis that generative AI is structurally undermining the legacy SaaS business model.
Intuit Inc (NASDAQ: INTU) shares opened about 19% lower despite the company posting fiscal third quarter results that topped Wall Street expectations, as investors focused on a weaker long-term outlook for TurboTax and plans to cut roughly 17% of its workforce. The damage was three-layered: TurboTax revenue guidance was cut even as the overall outlook was raised; 17% of the workforce (~3,000 jobs) was eliminated under an "AI restructuring" banner; and KeyBanc, Stifel, and RBC Capital all cut price targets.
Intuit's value historically came from the "guided help" layer: wizards walking users through tax filing, bookkeeping, marketing automation. Generative AI threatens to commoditize exactly that layer. When even a beat-and-raise print can't support the stock, the market is pricing a structural rerating, and the contagion spreads to similar SaaS names.
The stock market overreacts to news, and big price drops can present good opportunities to buy high-quality stocks.
Among others, the following stocks were impacted:
- Marketing Software company Sprout Social (NASDAQ: SPT) fell 3%. Is now the time to buy Sprout Social? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Healthcare And Life Sciences Software company Veeva Systems (NYSE: VEEV) fell 2.9%. Is now the time to buy Veeva Systems? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
Zooming In On Sprout Social (SPT)
Sprout Social’s shares are extremely volatile and have had 36 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The previous big move we wrote about was 3 days ago when the stock gained 3.1% after investor confidence rebounded as markets softened their view on the existential threat AI poses to traditional software companies.
After a period of significant underperformance, dubbed the "SaaS Rout of 2026," where software stocks traded at a discount to the S&P 500, the prevailing fear that AI would completely disrupt and replace traditional Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies began to subside.
Experts noted that these companies possess significant advantages, including established enterprise relationships, vast amounts of proprietary data, and deep integration into customer workflows, which AI is unlikely to erase overnight. This changing perspective suggests a potential re-rating for the sector as investors realize these companies may be well-positioned to integrate and leverage AI rather than be replaced by it.
Sprout Social is down 35.7% since the beginning of the year, and at $6.66 per share, it is trading 70.4% below its 52-week high of $22.46 from June 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Sprout Social’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at only $107.91.
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