With the tax season in full swing, Americans are in the midst of selecting the tax-preparation methods that best suit their needs. Although roughly 60 percent of the 112 million American taxpayers still prefer to have a professional prepare their taxes, more are gravitating toward the convenience of computer desktop and online tax-preparation software.

TurboTax, America’s most popular tax-preparation software, sold 24 million copies last year and allowed taxpayers an easy and efficient method to file their returns. Intuit (NSDQ: INTU), the maker of TurboTax, has been providing business and financial management solutions since 1983 and produces other well-known brands such as personal finance software Quicken and business accounting software QuickBooks.

As consumers and businesses become increasingly cost conscious, they choose less expensive software to handle their finances. More customers opt for Intuit’s products with each passing year, which has enabled the company to grow its sales an average of 12 percent annually for the last 5 years. In its most recent quarter, Intuit reported revenue of $1.02 billion, up 16.1 percent year over year, while profit rose 54 percent to $154 million. Operating margin jumped 18.8 percent due to improved cost management.

Revenue growth was driven by strong adoption of Intuit’s online services, which increased their share of total revenue to 60 percent in the first half of fiscal 2012, up from 54 percent in the first half of 2011. The company reported sales of 442,000 QuickBooks units during its most recent quarter, a modest rise of 2.8 percent. Meanwhile, sales of TurboTax grew 17.1 percent from the year-ago period with total sales of 8.2 million. Its online version of this program grew 39.4 percent over that same period and now accounts for 56.1 percent of total TurboTax sales.

These results beat expectations, and management set its fiscal third-quarter guidance—when the company emerges from tax season and reports nearly half of its annual revenue—at the higher end of analysts’ expectations. That drove shares of Intuit’s stock to a record high on Feb. 22. Intuit expects its full-year revenue to top $4 billion, which is in line with its annual growth rate.

Management’s growth strategy depends on the continued adoption of its online software products, as well as creating software that can be employed across numerous platforms ranging from desktop computers to smartphones and tablet computers.

To that end, Intuit is developing more applications for mobile phones and tablet computers. In addition to its signature brands, it also offers a SnapTax app for Canadian customers that allows users to capture a picture of their tax form, which is then used to automatically populate its TurboTax software.

Last April, Intuit began offering live assistance for its products through a call center available to subscribers. The company has hired more than 700 tax attorneys, certified public accountants and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents to provide tax-preparation assistance via phone or online chat. This initiative has added a human element to a product that is only one-fifth the cost of the average tax professional. Management believes this will ultimately help the company tap into another 40 million potential TurboTax users, stealing market share from its main competitors, H&R Block (NYSE: HRB) and Jackson Hewitt.

Intuit declared its first quarterly dividend last August, and its stock yields roughly 1 percent. So investors can enjoy rare income from a company that’s only in the middle phase of what promises to be robust, long-term growth.