DocuSign shares crater after first-quarter earnings miss

DocuSign shares fell as much as 17% in extended trading on Thursday after the electronic signature software vendor reported weaker-than-expected earnings in its fiscal first quarter.

Here’s how the company did:

Earnings: 38 cents per share, adjusted, vs. 46 cents per share as expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv.Revenue: $588.7 million, vs. $581.8 million as expected by analysts, according to Refinitiv.

For the quarter, which ended on April 30, DocuSign’s revenue grew 25% from a year earlier, according to a statement.

But as investors shift away from a focus on growth to profitability, DocuSign’s miss on earnings is overshadowing its beat on revenue. The stock is down 43% this year as of Thursday’s close, tumbling alongside the rest of the cloud software sector.

For the second quarter, DocuSign called for revenue of $600 million to $604 million. The middle of the range, at $602 million, was just above the Refinitiv consensus of $601.7 million.

And for all of 2023, DocuSign sees $2.47 billion to $2.48 billion in revenue, compared to the $2.479 billion Refinitiv consensus.

Earlier this week DocuSign announced an expansion of its partnership with Microsoft.

Executives will discuss the results during a conference call with analysts starting at 4:30 p.m. ET.

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