DocuSign Announces Third Quarter Fiscal 2023 Financial Results

SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 8, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- DocuSign, Inc. (NASDAQ: DOCU), which offers the world's #1 e-signature product as part of its industry leading lineup, today announced results for its fiscal quarter ended October 31, 2022.

"We delivered solid third quarter results, and are pleased with the continued progress against our critical priorities," said Allan Thygesen, CEO of DocuSign. "DocuSign is the pioneer and leader in eSignature. This gives us a strong foundation to create and deliver a delightful and differentiated workflow experience, making agreements smarter and easier for companies of all sizes.  I look forward to continuing to advance our business, as we both innovate and operate at scale to deliver value for all of our stakeholders."

Third Quarter Financial Highlights

• Total revenue was $645.5 million, an increase of 18% year-over-year. Subscription revenue was $624.1 million, an increase of 18% year-over-year. Professional services and other revenue was $21.4 million, an increase of 27% year-over-year.
• Billings were $659.4 million, an increase of 17% year-over-year.
• GAAP gross margin was 80% compared to 79% in the same period last year. Non-GAAP gross margin was 83% compared to 82% in the same period last year.
• GAAP net loss per basic and diluted share was $0.15 on 201 million shares outstanding compared to $0.03 on 198 million shares outstanding in the same period last year.
• Non-GAAP net income per diluted share was $0.57 on 206 million shares outstanding compared to $0.58 on 208 million shares outstanding in the same period last year.
• Net cash provided by operating activities was $52.5 million compared to $105.4 million in the same period last year.
• Free cash flow was $36.1 million compared to $90.0 million in the same period last year.
• Cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash and investments were $1.1 billion at the end of the quarter.

A reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP financial measures has been provided in the tables included in this press release. An explanation of these measures is also included below under the heading "Non-GAAP Financial Measures and Other Key Metrics."

Operational and Other Financial Highlights:

• 2022 Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader. For the third year in a row, DocuSign was named a Leader in the 2022 Magic Quadrant for CLM research report by Gartner, Inc. This year, DocuSign was placed highest among the 18 vendors evaluated on the "ability to execute" axis, and highly on the "completeness of vision" axis.
• DocuSign Agreement Cloud 2022 Product Release 3. DocuSign announced many new product capabilities with highlights in the following areas:
• DocuSign eSignature. Introduced Elastic Signing, which enables organizations to deliver a personalized signing experience that is fast and seamless. Organizations can provide a fully customizable UI across their websites and mobile apps, display content based on conditional logic, and let users sign with the click of a button for a digital-first experience that drives higher completion.
• Enhanced workflows within Microsoft Applications. DocuSign announced enhancement to eSignature for Microsoft Teams, allowing users to send and sign agreements natively, within Microsoft Teams. DocuSign also announced eSignature enhancements utilizing Microsoft Power Automate and Microsoft SharePoint.
• DocuSign CLM. Introduced enhancements to the document review experience within CLM Essentials with a more accessible and user-friendly interface. Other enhancements include a new process reporting feature for CLM Essentials and improved insights regarding contract renewals and notice periods.
• DocuSign Notary. Digital certificates for DocuSign Notary provides new users with digital certificates to attach to each notarial transaction, meeting or exceeding digital certificates requirements for all states. Notaries public will be able to onboard significantly faster than with third-party certificate authorities as well as save on certificate fees.

Outlook

The company currently expects the following guidance: 

The company has not reconciled its guidance of non-GAAP financial measures to the corresponding GAAP measures because stock-based compensation expense cannot be reasonably calculated or predicted at this time. Accordingly, a reconciliation has not been provided.

Webcast Conference Call Information

The company will host a conference call on December 8, 2022 at 1:30 p.m. PT (4:30 p.m. ET) to discuss its financial results. A live webcast of the event will be available on the DocuSign Investor Relations website at investor.docusign.com. A live dial-in will be available domestically at 877-407-0784 or internationally at 201-689-8560. A replay will be available domestically at 844-512-2921 or internationally at 412-317-6671 until midnight (ET) December 22, 2022 using the passcode 13734316.

About DocuSign

DocuSign helps organizations connect and automate how they navigate their systems of agreement. As part of its industry leading product lineup, DocuSign offers eSignature, the world's #1 way to sign electronically on practically any device, from almost anywhere, at any time. Today, over 1.3 million customers and more than a billion users in over 180 countries use the DocuSign platform to accelerate the process of doing business and simplify people's lives. For more information visit http://www.docusign.com

Copyright 2022. DocuSign, Inc. is the owner of DOCUSIGN® and all its other marks (www.docusign.com/IP).

Investor Relations:
DocuSign Investor Relations
[email protected]

Media Relations:
DocuSign Corporate Communications
[email protected]

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, that are based on our management's beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to management, and which statements involve substantial risk and uncertainties. Forward-looking statements include all statements that are not historical facts and can be identified by terms such as "may," "will," "should," "expects," "plans," "anticipates," "could," "intends," "target," "projects," "contemplates," "believes," "estimates," "predicts," "potential," or "continue" or the negative of these words or other similar terms or expressions that concern our expectations, strategy, plans or intentions. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, among other things, statements under "Outlook" above and any other statements about expected financial metrics, such as revenue, billings, non-GAAP gross margin, non-GAAP diluted weighted-average shares outstanding, and non-financial metrics, such as customer growth, as well as statements related to our expectations regarding our growth. They also include statements about our future operating results and financial position, our business strategy and plans, market growth and trends, and our objectives for future operations. These statements are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements.

These risks and uncertainties include, among other things, risks related to our expectations regarding global macro-economic conditions, including the effects of inflation, rising and fluctuating interest rates and market volatility on the global economy; our ability to estimate the size and growth of our total addressable market, and the development of the market for our products, which is new and evolving; our ability to effectively sustain and manage our growth and future expenses, achieve and maintain future profitability, attract new customers and maintain and expand our existing customer base; our ability to effectively implement and execute our restructuring plan; the impact of the coronavirus pandemic (the "COVID-19 pandemic") or its abatement, on our business, results of operations, financial condition, and future profitability and growth; the impact of the evolving COVID-19 pandemic on the businesses of our customers, partners and suppliers, and the economy; our ability to scale and update our platform to respond to customers' needs and rapid technological change; the effects of increased competition in our market and our ability to compete effectively; our ability to expand use cases within existing customers and vertical solutions; our ability to expand our operations and increase adoption of our platform internationally; our ability to strengthen and foster our relationships with developers; our ability to expand our direct sales force, customer success team and strategic partnerships around the world; the impact of any data breaches, cyberattacks or other malicious activity on our technology systems; our ability to identify targets for and execute potential acquisitions; our ability to successfully integrate the operations of businesses we may acquire, and to realize the anticipated benefits of such acquisitions; our ability to maintain, protect and enhance our brand; the sufficiency of our cash, cash equivalents and capital resources to satisfy our liquidity needs; limitations on us due to obligations we have under our credit facility or other indebtedness; our failure or the failure of our software to comply with applicable industry standards, laws and regulations; our ability to maintain, protect and enhance our intellectual property; our ability to successfully defend litigation against us; our ability to attract large organizations as users; our ability to maintain our corporate culture; our ability to offer high-quality customer support; our ability to hire, retain and motivate qualified personnel, including executive level management; our ability to successfully manage and integrate executive management transitions; uncertainties regarding the impact of general economic and market conditions, including as a result of regional and global conflicts or related government sanctions; our ability to successfully implement and maintain new and existing information technology systems, including our ERP system; and our ability to maintain proper and effective internal controls. Additional risks and uncertainties that could affect our financial results are included in the sections titled "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" in our annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended January 31, 2022 filed on March 25, 2022, our quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended October 31, 2022, which we expect to file on December 8, 2022 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), and other filings that we make from time to time with the SEC. In addition, any forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based on assumptions that we believe to be reasonable as of this date. Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update these forward-looking statements, or to update the reasons if actual results differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures and Other Key Metrics

To supplement our consolidated financial statements, which are prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP, we use certain non-GAAP financial measures, as described below, to understand and evaluate our core operating performance. These non-GAAP financial measures, which may be different than similarly-titled measures used by other companies, are presented to enhance investors' overall understanding of our financial performance and should not be considered a substitute for, or superior to, the financial information prepared and presented in accordance with GAAP.

We believe that these non-GAAP financial measures provide useful information about our financial performance, enhance the overall understanding of our past performance and future prospects, and allow for greater transparency with respect to important metrics used by our management for financial and operational decision-making. We present these non-GAAP measures to assist investors in seeing our financial performance using a management view, and because we believe that these measures provide an additional tool for investors to use in comparing our core financial performance over multiple periods with other companies in our industry. However, these non-GAAP measures are not intended to be considered in isolation from, a substitute for, or superior to our GAAP results.

Non-GAAP gross profit, non-GAAP gross margin, non-GAAP operating expenses, non-GAAP income from operations, non-GAAP operating margin, non-GAAP net income and non-GAAP net income per share: We define these non-GAAP financial measures as the respective GAAP measures, excluding expenses related to stock-based compensation, employer payroll tax on employee stock transactions, amortization of acquisition-related intangibles, amortization of debt discount and issuance costs, acquisition-related expenses, fair value adjustments to strategic investments, executive transition costs, lease-related impairment and lease-related charges, restructuring and other related charges, as these costs are not reflective of ongoing operations and, as applicable, other special items. The amount of employer payroll tax-related items on employee stock transactions is dependent on our stock price and other factors that are beyond our control and do not correlate to the operation of the business. When evaluating the performance of our business and making operating plans, we do not consider these items (for example, when considering the impact of equity award grants, we place a greater emphasis on overall stockholder dilution rather than the accounting charges associated with such grants). We believe it is useful to exclude these expenses in order to better understand the long-term performance of our core business and to facilitate comparison of our results to those of peer companies and over multiple periods. In addition to these exclusions, we subtract an assumed provision for income taxes to calculate non-GAAP net income. We utilize a fixed long-term projected tax rate in our computation of the non-GAAP income tax provision to provide better consistency across the reporting periods. For fiscal 2023, we determined the projected non-GAAP tax rate to be 20% tax rate.

Free cash flow: We define free cash flow as net cash provided by operating activities less purchases of property and equipment. We believe free cash flow is an important liquidity measure of the cash that is available (if any), after purchases of property and equipment, for operational expenses, investment in our business, and to make acquisitions. Free cash flow is useful to investors as a liquidity measure because it measures our ability to generate or use cash in excess of our capital investments in property and equipment. Once our business needs and obligations are met, cash can be used to maintain a strong balance sheet and invest in future growth.

Billings: We define billings as total revenues plus the change in our contract liabilities and refund liability less contract assets and unbilled accounts receivable in a given period. Billings reflects sales to new customers plus subscription renewals and additional sales to existing customers. Only amounts invoiced to a customer in a given period are included in billings. We believe billings is a key metric to measure our periodic performance. Given that most of our customers pay in annual installments one year in advance, but we typically recognize a majority of the related revenue ratably over time, we use billings to measure and monitor our ability to provide our business with the working capital generated by upfront payments from our customers.

For a reconciliation of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure, please see "Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Financial Measures" below. In this press release, we have not reconciled our guidance of non-GAAP financial measures to the corresponding GAAP measures because stock-based compensation expense cannot be reasonably calculated or predicted at this time.

SOURCE DocuSign, Inc.