DocuSign CEO Springer: Don't worry, we're still growing strong
Digital document workflow pioneer DocuSign this afternoon reported fiscal Q2 revenue and profit that both beat Wall Street's expectations, and an outlook that was higher for this quarter's revenue, and raised its year revenue view.
Despite the upbeat report, DocuSign shares slipped 1.7% in late trading.
CEO Dan Springer told ZDNet the results are a validation that the company continues to grow at a high rate even as some of the pandemic-driven sales subside.
"We're really pleased with the solid quarter, with high growth again," said Springer. "We exceeded our expectations both on revenue and billings; revenue is the most important number that we deliver on."
There was some concern the company's financial results would be muted as a result of the cooling of pandemic sales.
"I think there have been a lot of questions around what's going to happen post-pandemic, and I think that was a nice reassurance to give our investors, to say, Hey, don't worry, we're still growing strong," he said. While the "pandemic added a little wind to our sales," said Springer, nevertheless, "We are going to be a high-growth company after the pandemic."
Revenue in the three months ended in July rose 50%, year over year, to $511.8 million, yielding a net profit of 47 cents a share, excluding some costs.
Analysts had been modeling $489 million and 40 cents per share.
Revenue has been helped by customers expanding their use more broadly throughout organizations.
Springer cited the example of Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the largest bank in Asia-Pacific, and a large customer of DocuSign's. "While their usage went up, they also had a substantial expansion into other areas in the bank, where they're now seeing it across the bank, the HR department is saying, we should be doing this with employees the same way we're using it with our customers," said Springer.
"We have seen that kind of expansion, when people have that first successful land," he said, referring to the sales strategy of land-and-expand.
Springer told ZDNet the company is focused on expanding internationally. "We've not done the job we should have done," he said, meaning, not expanded overseas sufficiently. International sales made up 22% of total revenue last quarter.
"While I'm happy we've gone from 18% to 22% the past couple of years, but the company's at $2 billion in revenue, I'd like to see us significantly higher than that."
Also: DocuSign shares jump on fiscal Q1 results, outlook above expectations
DocuSign said that its "billings" in the quarter, which combine deferred revenue that had been invoiced and reported revenue, rose by 47% to $595.4 million.
For the current quarter, the company sees revenue of $526 million to $532 million versus consensus for $522.
For the full year, the company sees revenue in a range of $2.078 billion to $2.088 billion, up from a prior forecast of $2.027 billion to $2.039 billion, and also ahead of consensus of $2.05 billion.
Also: DocuSign acquires 'smart agreements' startup Clause