DALLAS, Nov. 09, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Blucora, Inc. (NASDAQ: BCOR), a provider of data and technology-driven tax software and wealth management solutions that empower people to improve their financial wellness, today announced financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2020.

Third Quarter Highlights and Recent Developments

• Closed acquisition of HK Financial Services, adding a historically fast-growing, highly profitable registered investment advisor (“RIA”) to the Company’s wealth management business
• Advisory assets increased 23% year-over-year, including addition of HKFS
• Total client assets ended the quarter at $76.2 billion, with $32.4 billion, or 42.6% in advisory assets
• Announced appointment of Karthik Rao, Nielsen COO, to our Board of Directors

“I’m pleased to report that Blucora’s third quarter results showed incremental improvement and came in better than expected on a number of metrics,” commented Chris Walters, Blucora’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “In wealth management, we hit record levels of advisory assets. Our acquisition of HK Financial Services allows us to serve CPA firms and tax advisors in compelling new ways. In tax preparation, we completed the extended tax season while simultaneously working to ensure that we will enter the fast-approaching new season optimized across product and marketing.”

“Over the first nine months of my tenure, we have identified several key challenges and opportunities and acted quickly to address a number of immediate needs. We have brought on the right people and aligned our organizational structure to a common set of goals. We’ve developed plans to ensure that we have the right technology systems and service models across the Company and laid the groundwork to test synergies across our two business units. We have done all of this while facing the COVID-19-related headwinds, and I believe we are making the right moves to set Blucora up for sustainable long-term success.”

Preliminary 2021 Tax Preparation Outlook

Due to the extended tax season in 2020, we believe it is more helpful to provide a full-year 2021, rather than first half, outlook for tax preparation.

As we continue to improve our product features, implement our new marketing approach and prepare to launch our new hybrid-assisted offering, we feel confident approaching the new tax year. At the same time, given our planned transition from price-driven growth to unit-driven growth, supplemented by ARPU benefits of incremental offerings, and the longer guidance period, we want to be appropriately cautious in our outlook. Given these and other factors, we are targeting low single digit revenue growth in tax preparation for full-year 2021 and reaffirming our prior segment operating income outlook, which calls for a minimum of $20 million improvement vs. 2020.

About Blucora®

Blucora, Inc. (NASDAQ: BCOR) is on the forefront of financial technology, a provider of data and technology-driven solutions that empowers people to improve their financial wellness. Blucora operates in two segments including (i) wealth management, through its tax-focused Avantax Wealth Management and HK Financial Services brands, with a collective $76 billion in total client assets as of September 30, 2020 and (ii) tax preparation, through its TaxAct business, a market leader in tax preparation software with approximately 3 million consumer and 20,000 professional users in 2020. With integrated tax focused software and wealth management, Blucora is uniquely positioned to assist our customers in achieving better long-term outcomes via holistic, tax-advantaged solutions. For more information on Blucora, visit www.blucora.com.