Services

Should DocuSign Get More Credit for Its Q1 Results?

Chris Lange

Published: June 7, 2019 9:55 am

Last Updated: January 6, 2020 3:57 am

DocuSign Inc. (NASDAQ: DOCU) released its fiscal first-quarter financial results after the markets closed on Thursday. The company said that it had $0.07 in earnings per share (EPS) and $214 million in revenue, which compares with consensus estimates of $0.04 in EPS and revenue of $208.15 million. In the same period of last year, the San Francisco-based company said it had EPS of $0.01 and $155.81 million in revenue.

During the most recent quarter, total revenues grew 37% year over year. Subscription revenue came to $201.5 million, an increase of 36% year over year, while Professional services and other revenue was $12.5 million, an increase of 64% year over year.

At the same time, billings were $215.0 million, an increase of 27%.

Looking ahead to the fiscal second quarter, the company expects to see total revenues in the range of $218 million to $222 million and billings between $215 million and $225 million. Consensus estimates call for $0.04 in EPS and $219.87 million in revenue for the quarter.

Dan Springer, CEO of DocuSign, commented:

Overall, we posted a solid first quarter for Fiscal 2020—revenues grew 37% year-over-year, we were again profitable on a non-GAAP basis, and we now have over half a million paying customers around the world. What’s more, we are seeing strong results from the work we’ve done to optimize our go-to-market sales motion, bringing in net new customers and expanding use cases within our installed base. And with the announcement of the DocuSign Agreement Cloud this quarter—our suite of products and integrations for automating the entire agreement process—we can now deliver a much broader set of solutions to market, positioning us as the next ‘must-have’ cloud.

After the report, Wedbush maintained a Neutral rating with a $48 price target. The brokerage firm said in its report:

Last night the “beat and raise” DocuSign machine disappointed the Street delivering a mixed April quarter which saw a softer billings performance and conservative guidance that will be a tough pill to swallow for the bulls this morning. As the company is expanding its product suite and cross-selling opportunities, DocuSign is seeing some longer sales cycles in the field which softened the growth/billings performance (still growing top-line 37%) this quarter and will weigh on shares accordingly. That said, we believe DocuSign’s product footprint and robust customer base is clearly heading in the right direction as we view this quarter more as a speed bump rather than the start of softening deal environment going forward for the company. To this point, we still believe the company is only in the early innings of the penetration story, but was worried a quarter like this could be in the cards given the more complex sales transformation currently happening at DocuSign.

Shares of DocuSign traded down more than 12% to $47.92 early Friday. The 52-week range is $35.06 to $68.35, and the consensus price target is $66.10.