What Happened?
A number of stocks fell in the afternoon session after Anthropic announced that its Claude AI assistant can now control computers to complete tasks by imitating human keystrokes and mouse movements.
Investors reacted to the possibility that enterprise value would migrate from the application layer to the intelligence layer, leaving legacy software providers vulnerable to displacement by autonomous agents that can operate across platforms. Analysts added that the "agentic era" could lead to massive margin compression as software companies lose their pricing power.
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:
- Advertising Software company LiveRamp (NYSE: RAMP) fell 4.6%. Is now the time to buy LiveRamp? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Marketing Software company Sprout Social (NASDAQ: SPT) fell 5.3%. Is now the time to buy Sprout Social? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Video Conferencing company 8x8 (NASDAQ: EGHT) fell 4.6%. Is now the time to buy 8x8? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Tax Software company Intuit (NASDAQ: INTU) fell 5.3%. Is now the time to buy Intuit? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
- Automation Software company ServiceNow (NYSE: NOW) fell 5%. Is now the time to buy ServiceNow? Access our full analysis report here, it’s free.
Zooming In On Intuit (INTU)
Intuit’s shares are somewhat volatile and have had 13 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 19 days ago when the stock gained 6.9% on the news that investors looked past recent fears of AI-driven disruption, focusing instead on strong company fundamentals and attractive valuations. The tech sector recently experienced a downturn after the release of a new AI tool sparked concerns about potential industry disruption. However, strong fourth-quarter earnings reports have helped to ease those worries, with some analysts now viewing the fears as overblown. According to analysts, "The disconnect between near-term fundamentals and long-term fear is enormous." This shift in sentiment is bolstered by the fact that the recent sell-off has made valuations in the software space more attractive for investors, especially for companies still showing double-digit growth. Some hedge funds that previously shorted software stocks began to cover their positions, interpreting the peak negativity as a sign of capitulation and a potential turning point for the sector.
Intuit is down 31.3% since the beginning of the year, and at $432.17 per share, it is trading 46.5% below its 52-week high of $807.39 from July 2025. Despite the year-to-date decline, investors who bought $1,000 worth of Intuit’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $1,145.
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