Updated: December 5, 2025 – suitable for Google News & Discover
DocuSign, Inc. (NASDAQ: DOCU) is back in the spotlight after reporting fiscal Q3 2026 results on December 4 that beat Wall Street expectations on both revenue and earnings, while reiterating its strategic shift from pure e‑signature to an AI‑driven Intelligent Agreement Management (IAM) platform. Yet the stock is trading well below its 2025 highs as investors weigh modest single‑digit growth against strong profitability and an ambitious AI roadmap. [1]
As of early trading on December 5, 2025, DocuSign shares change hands around $71 per share, leaving the stock roughly one‑third below its 52‑week high despite solid cash flow and increasing institutional interest. [2]
DocuSign stock today: price, range and recent performance
- Latest price: about $71.10 in Friday’s session.
- Day range: roughly $70.80–$72.35. [3]
- 52‑week range:$63.50–$107.86, putting today’s price near the lower third of that band. [4]
- One‑year performance: DocuSign is down about 33–34% over the past 12 months, even after recent rebounds. [5]
Historical data from Investing.com and StockAnalysis show that DOCU closed at $71.10 on December 4, with extended‑hours trading dipping to around $68.86, reflecting a negative reaction to the earnings release despite headline beats. [6]
In other words: the business is doing better than the share price suggests, and the market clearly wants more than “just” an earnings beat.
Q3 FY26 results: beat on revenue, earnings and cash flow
DocuSign’s fiscal Q3 2026 (quarter ended October 31, 2025) numbers were strong across most metrics: [7]
- Total revenue:$818.4 million, up 8% year‑on‑year, and above consensus estimates around $807–$808 million.
- Subscription revenue:$801.0 million, up 9% year‑on‑year, still the vast majority of the business.
- Professional services & other:$17.4 million, down 14%, consistent with DocuSign’s strategy to deemphasize lower‑margin services.
- Billings:$829.5 million, growing 10% year‑on‑year – an important forward‑looking indicator that slightly outpaced revenue growth.
- GAAP EPS:$0.40 per diluted share, up from $0.30 a year earlier.
- Non‑GAAP EPS:$1.01, beating forecasts around $0.91–$0.92 and up from $0.90 last year.
- Operating cash flow:$290.3 million (vs. $234.3 million a year ago).
- Free cash flow:$262.9 million, up from $210.7 million, implying a robust FCF margin just above 32%.
The company ended the quarter with roughly $1.0 billion in cash, cash equivalents and investments, and repurchased $215.1 million of its own shares, up from $172.7 million in the prior‑year quarter. [8]
Margin trends were a bit more mixed:
- GAAP gross margin: 79.2% (slightly below 79.3% a year ago).
- Non‑GAAP gross margin: 81.8%, down about 70 basis points year‑on‑year, as highlighted by 24/7 Wall St and other earnings recaps. [9]
The takeaway from the quarter: growth remains high single‑digit, but profitability and cash generation are firmly in “mature SaaS” territory.
Guidance and 2026 outlook: steady, not spectacular
Investors quickly turned from the backward‑looking beat to DocuSign’s guidance for the rest of fiscal 2026, which management laid out in the official press release and reiterated on the earnings call. [10]
For Q4 FY26 (ending January 31, 2026) DocuSign expects:
- Revenue:$825–$829 million, implying about 7% year‑on‑year growth at the midpoint.
- Subscription revenue:$808–$812 million, also around 7% growth.
- Billings:$992 million–$1.002 billion, about 8% growth.
- Non‑GAAP operating margin: roughly 28.3–28.7%.
For the full fiscal year FY26, the company guides to:
- Revenue:$3.208–$3.212 billion, about 8% year‑on‑year.
- Subscription revenue: roughly $3.14 billion, up 8%.
- Billings:$3.379–$3.389 billion, about 9% growth.
- Non‑GAAP operating margin: just under 30%.
Third‑party forecast aggregators like StockAnalysis and Seeking Alpha show similar consensus – revenue in the low‑to‑mid $3.2 billion range for FY26 and mid‑single‑digit to high‑single‑digit growth thereafter, with EPS expected to rise again in FY27. [11]
In short: DocuSign is guiding for durable but not hyper‑growth, which is a key reason the market reaction has been so cautious.
Market reaction: why the stock slid after an earnings beat
The immediate trading response to Q3 was choppy:
- Investing.com’s recap noted that DOCU initially traded up about 0.7% in after‑hours to around $70.83 right after the earnings release. [12]
- Subsequent coverage from 24/7 Wall St and Bloomberg reported that the shares later fell as much as 6–7% in post‑market trading, with the stock down sharply for 2025 overall. [13]
- MarketBeat’s extended‑hours data shows DOCU at $68.86 after hours, versus a regular‑session close of $71.10 on December 4. [14]
Benzinga summed up the mood with a headline: “DocuSign Stock Slides as Q3 Earnings Beat Fails to Impress.” The article highlighted that while revenue and EPS were above consensus, investors seemed underwhelmed by the mid‑single‑digit growth outlook and modest gross‑margin compression. [15]
Several commentators – including analysts quoted by Zacks, 24/7 Wall St and others – have argued that DocuSign is now firmly in the “show‑me” phase: profitability is good, the AI story is promising, but the market wants evidence that IAM and new products can reaccelerate growth beyond the high single digits. [16]
Analyst ratings and price targets: “Hold” consensus, but notable upside
Despite the stock’s drawdown, Wall Street does not view DOCU as broken – just fully priced for its current growth profile.
Street consensus
- MarketBeat reports that 20 analysts currently cover DocuSign, with 16 rating it Hold and 4 rating it Buy, and an average 12‑month price target around $94–95. [17]
- StockAnalysis similarly categorizes the stock as a “Hold”, with an average target near $95.62, implying about 34% upside from roughly $71. [18]
- TipRanks lists a “Moderate Buy” consensus based on 13 recent analysts, with an average price target around $97–98, a high estimate of $124 and a low estimate of $85, suggesting roughly 40–45% upside from late‑Thursday levels in the high‑$60s. [19]
- MarketWatch and MLQ.ai present similar pictures: mostly neutral ratings, but average targets in the low‑ to mid‑$90s. [20]
Several high‑profile analysts have nudged targets higher over the past few months: Citigroup maintained a “Strong Buy” view with a target in the $115–$120 range, while UBS, Morgan Stanley and others sit in the $85–$95 band with neutral or “equal weight” ratings. [21]
Valuation snapshot
Based on data from StockAnalysis and DocuSign’s own investor site: [22]
- Market cap: ~$14.3 billion
- Trailling EPS (ttm): about $1.44
- Trailing P/E: roughly 49x
- Forward P/E: around 18x, reflecting expected earnings growth as margins expand
- TTM revenue: about $3.16 billion
- TTM net income: ~$300 million
For a SaaS company with high‑80s gross margins and ~30% FCF margins, that forward multiple looks reasonable but not distressed, which helps explain why many analysts sit on “Hold” with upside targets rather than issuing across‑the‑board buys.
Strategy shift: from e‑signature to AI‑native Intelligent Agreement Management
A key theme across recent quarters – and across external coverage – is DocuSign’s evolution from a single‑product e‑signature vendor into a broader Intelligent Agreement Management (IAM) platform.
A November Yahoo Finance/Simply Wall St piece and a separate Yahoo analysis note that DocuSign has “made a pivotal change in its legacy business model,” moving beyond digital signatures toward an integrated system that creates, negotiates, analyzes and manages agreements using AI. [23]
DocuSign’s own Q3 press release and product materials reinforce that narrative: [24]
- The company now has more than 25,000 customers on its AI‑native IAM platform.
- Those customers have roughly 150 million agreements in the DocuSign Navigator repository, averaging over 5,000 contracts per customer.
- At the Discover25 developer event, DocuSign announced that IAM will integrate with ChatGPT, Anthropic Claude, Google’s Gemini, GitHub Copilot and Microsoft Copilot Studio via a new Model Context Protocol (MCP) server.
- New Navigator and Maestro APIs allow developers to connect third‑party systems and internal apps directly into DocuSign workflows.
- Docusign for Agentforce embeds agreement tools and AI‑driven insights into Salesforce’s sales platform to speed deal cycles.
- Security and compliance milestones include FedRAMP Moderate and GovRAMP authorization, plus new ID Verification with CLEAR and broader identity‑verification support across regions like Japan.
- IAM capabilities such as AI‑assisted summaries and AI‑assisted Q&A for agreements went live in 2025, initially in North America and specific verticals like real estate.
The Discover25 recap underscores DocuSign’s push into “agentic” AI, where automated agents help generate, redline and manage contracts with minimal manual intervention – a direction that could significantly boost contract throughput per user over time. [25]
External research generally frames this pivot as strategically sound but execution‑intensive: it requires retraining sales teams, convincing existing e‑signature customers to adopt higher‑priced IAM tiers, and competing more directly with other contract lifecycle management (CLM) and AI‑contract vendors. [26]
What recent analysis says: falling stock, rising potential?
Several recent pieces have tried to answer the question “Is the 2025 slide a buying opportunity?”
- A Motley Fool/Nasdaq article from December 4 points out that DocuSign “thrived during the pandemic” and has continued to grow afterwards, but that the stock has fallen in 2025 as investors rotate into faster‑growing or more “pure‑play AI” stories. The author frames 2026 as a potential recovery year if the IAM pivot delivers. [27]
- A Simply Wall St analysis titled “Does Recent Business Model Shift Make DocuSign a Better Value for Investors in 2025?” notes that the share price has been volatile: up about 5% in the week leading into December, but still down over 20% year‑to‑date and double‑digits over 12 months. It highlights that DocuSign’s valuation multiple has compressed, but warns that the market may still be skeptical about long‑term growth re‑acceleration. [28]
- Zacks, 24/7 Wall St and QuiverQuant all emphasize the same pattern: beats on revenue and EPS, solid cash flow, but guidance that keeps growth in the high single digits, which limits how aggressively investors are willing to bid the stock up. [29]
Collectively, this coverage paints DocuSign as a profitable, strategically important SaaS name whose share price is stuck between its legacy past and AI‑enabled future.
Ownership, insider moves and institutional positioning
The ownership picture around DocuSign has also evolved notably in recent months.
Big money flowing in
A December 3 MarketBeat report shows that Norges Bank, Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, opened a new DOCU position of about 1.81 million shares, valued at roughly $141 million, representing close to 0.9% of the company. Several other institutions, including Wellington Management and Jupiter Asset Management, have also significantly increased positions, helping push institutional ownership to around 77–78% of shares outstanding. [30]
Other filings tracked by MarketBeat note additional institutional activity, including buys from Quadrant Capital Group and shifts by firms like Schroder Investment Management. [31]
Insider selling: small trims, not mass exodus
On the insider side, MarketBeat reports several modest sales in early December: [32]
- Director Anna Marrs sold 365 shares at an average price of about $68.54, trimming her stake by just over 3% to 11,163 shares.
- Director James Beer sold 450 shares at roughly the same price, reducing his holdings by about 3% to 14,478 shares.
Over the past 90 days, insiders have sold just over 100,000 shares in total, a small fraction of the overall float, and insiders still hold around 1.6–1.7% of the company. [33]
For long‑term investors, the more meaningful story is strong institutional sponsorship, particularly from large asset managers and a major sovereign wealth fund, rather than the relatively minor director sales.
Key risks and catalysts for DOCU stock
Putting the numbers and news together, the near‑term investment debate around DocuSign centers on a few core risks and catalysts.
Main risks
- Growth deceleration: Revenue growth has settled into the high‑single‑digit range, far from the 20–30%+ rates of DocuSign’s pandemic boom years. If IAM adoption doesn’t accelerate, the stock could remain range‑bound. [34]
- Competition: Large players like Adobe and Microsoft, as well as specialized CLM vendors, are pushing hard into digital agreements and contract AI, potentially pressuring pricing and win rates. [35]
- Execution on the IAM pivot: Migrating a large installed base from simple e‑signature to a premium, multi‑module IAM platform is complex; any missteps could slow bookings or increase churn. [36]
Potential catalysts
- Faster IAM adoption: As more customers adopt Navigator, Maestro, IAM analytics and AI‑assisted tools, average revenue per user (ARPU) could rise, driving mid‑teens billings growth again. [37]
- Large enterprise deals and public‑sector wins: FedRAMP and GovRAMP approvals, plus deeper Salesforce integration, open doors in regulated industries and large global accounts. [38]
- Takeover speculation: Seeking Alpha and other outlets have occasionally discussed DocuSign as a potential acquisition target given its strategic position and recurring revenue base, which could provide an upside surprise if any credible bid emerges. [39]
Bottom line: how to think about DocuSign stock after Q3
As of December 5, 2025, DOCU sits in an interesting middle ground:
- Financially: high‑margin, cash‑generative, and still growing – just at single‑digit rates. [40]
- Strategically: well‑positioned in a crucial software category (agreements and contracts) with an increasingly sophisticated AI platform and strong ecosystem partnerships. [41]
- Market sentiment: cautious but not bearish, with a “Hold” consensus, meaningful implied upside in price targets, and substantial institutional backing. [42]
For growth‑oriented investors comfortable with volatility, DocuSign now looks like a classic “show‑me” story for 2026: if IAM and agentic AI start to reaccelerate billings growth, the current forward multiple could prove attractive.
For more conservative investors, the analyst consensus and the stock’s choppy reaction to a clean earnings beat suggest that waiting for clearer signs of sustained double‑digit growth – or a better entry price – may be prudent.
Either way, DOCU has shifted from being just a pandemic e‑signature winner to a long‑term bet on how AI will reshape the life of contracts.
References
1. investor.docusign.com, 2. www.investing.com, 3. www.investing.com, 4. www.investing.com, 5. www.investing.com, 6. www.marketbeat.com, 7. investor.docusign.com, 8. investor.docusign.com, 9. 247wallst.com, 10. investor.docusign.com, 11. stockanalysis.com, 12. www.investing.com, 13. 247wallst.com, 14. www.marketbeat.com, 15. www.benzinga.com, 16. finviz.com, 17. www.marketbeat.com, 18. stockanalysis.com, 19. www.tipranks.com, 20. www.marketwatch.com, 21. stockanalysis.com, 22. stockanalysis.com, 23. finance.yahoo.com, 24. investor.docusign.com, 25. www.docusign.com, 26. finance.yahoo.com, 27. www.nasdaq.com, 28. swingtradebot.com, 29. finviz.com, 30. www.marketbeat.com, 31. www.marketbeat.com, 32. www.marketbeat.com, 33. www.marketbeat.com, 34. investor.docusign.com, 35. seekingalpha.com, 36. finance.yahoo.com, 37. investor.docusign.com, 38. investor.docusign.com, 39. seekingalpha.com, 40. investor.docusign.com, 41. investor.docusign.com, 42. www.marketbeat.com
