Docusign will release its latest quarterly earnings report on December 4, 2025 (after U.S. market close). There is a difference between market expectations and the company's previous guidance, with the subscription business and earnings quality being the focal points.

Market Forecast

The market is generally focused on the sustained growth of DocuSign's revenue and earnings this quarter. According to consensus estimates, total revenue for this quarter is expected to be $806.9 million, up approximately 8.27% year-over-year; adjusted earnings per share (EPS) are expected to be $0.915, up about 5.27% year-over-year; EBIT is expected to be $230.9 million, increasing about 6.44% year-over-year. In the previous earnings call, the company guided a revenue range of approximately $777 million to $781 million for this season, which is lower than the market consensus and the main source of the discrepancy. The subscription business is the core revenue driver for the company; last quarter, subscription revenue was approximately $784.4 million, accounting for about 97.97%, with stable year-over-year growth. The existing business with the greatest growth prospects remains subscription-based e-signature and agreement management solutions, maintaining growth resilience with high gross margins and scalable customer renewal structures.

Review of Last Quarter

Last quarter, the company achieved revenue of $800.6 million, up approximately 8.78% year-over-year; the gross margin was about 79.53%, remaining stable year-over-year; net profit attributable to the parent company was approximately $62.97 million, under pressure both year-over-year and sequentially, with a net profit margin of about 7.86%; adjusted EPS was $0.92, down about 5.16% year-over-year. The company maintained stable revenues and gross margins driven by the subscription model, but net profit declined 12.65% sequentially, reflecting the impact of expenses and investment pacing on the profit end. By business segment, subscription revenue was approximately $784.4 million, while professional services and others were about $16.25 million, with subscriptions accounting for nearly 98%, reflecting the high recurrence and sustainability of the company's business model.

Outlook for This Quarter

Commercial Extension of Core Products DocuSign's core products revolve around e-signature and agreement lifecycle management (Agreement Cloud). The focus this quarter is on customer system expansion and incremental purchases from existing customers. The recurring revenue structure of the subscription business makes adding and expanding seats a natural growth path, with a nearly 80% gross margin last quarter supporting earnings quality. Due to the company's revenue guidance (ranging from $777 million to $781 million) being lower than consensus expectations, if this quarter's gains in large customers' cross-product purchases, increased API usage, and cross-regional expansion are validated, revenue resilience is expected to exceed the conservative guidance. Management emphasized solid growth and renewal quality over the past quarter, so if ARR and net retention rates remain stable or even improve, the revenue growth and profit structure driven by subscriptions will gradually improve, providing a basis for maintaining long-term gross margins.

Deepening Use Cases and Service Portfolio for Medium and Large Enterprises Medium and large enterprise customers often have more complex compliance and process requirements. From contract generation, approval, to archiving and analysis, end-to-end agreement management solutions will bring higher customer value and more durable renewal cycles. This quarter's focus is on accelerating customer acquisition through professional services and training, enabling the core value of subscriptions to be realized more quickly in business processes. Although professional services revenues accounted for a small percentage (approximately $16.25 million last quarter), they help penetrate subscription revenues during the solution delivery phase, particularly promoting multi-product portfolio adoption. If more industry scenarios (such as finance, healthcare, and public sectors) form replicable templates, the chain of incremental purchases and seat expansion will be smoother, stabilizing gross margins through scale effects. In a cautious budget environment, emphasizing ROI and compliance savings is more likely to get approval, helping turn conservative revenue guidance into actual outperformance.

Balancing Costs and Earnings Quality Last quarter, net profit fell 12.65% sequentially, with a net profit margin of 7.86%, indicating incremental pressure on sales, product R&D, and cloud infrastructure costs. This quarter, the key lies in whether cost structure optimization is implemented, including improving sales efficiency, strengthening channel partnerships, and reducing customer acquisition costs. If management maintains focus on earnings quality and controls expense growth, combined with the gross margin advantage of the subscription model, adjusted EPS is expected to approach or meet the consensus forecast of $0.915. On the other hand, if product and platform investments continue to ensure growth resilience, short-term profit pressure will persist, and the market's patience with the profit end will depend on revenue performance. The match between revenue and profit pace will directly affect post-earnings stock performance, particularly when company guidance is below consensus expectations. Stabilizing profits is key to alleviating discrepancies.

Analyst Opinions

Recent market views on DocuSign's discrepancies focus on the gap between guidance and consensus expectations and short- to medium-term profit performance. Based on public analyst comments, cautious opinions dominate: some institutions emphasized after the company released last quarter's earnings report and guidance that "guidance fell short of market expectations", pointing out that the second quarter revenue range ($777 million to $781 million) was below consensus expectations, raising concerns that slowing revenue growth may affect profit improvement pace. The core arguments of bearish views revolve around three points: first, conservative revenue guidance means client expansion and usage growth are still under observation; second, expense side investments may continue to suppress net margins, increasing the pressure on adjusted EPS realization; third, limited market expectation upside, suggesting post-report stock reactions might be more sensitive to guidance changes. Based on the above perspectives, this quarter's focus is on whether the company can close the gap with consensus expectations through subscription business renewal quality and multi-product adoption, and provide clearer signals on cost control.