Owner Scorecard


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DOCU, DocuSign

Software asset-light

Docusign IAM platform is a system of record that enables customers of all sizes to ingest a vast, complex body of agreements into a single repository, build agreement workflows that operate at scale, and take action on high-accuracy insights from agreement data.

Docusign solutions bring agreements to life, accelerating and simplifying the process of doing business.

As of January 31, 2026, over 1.8 million customers and more than a billion users worldwide utilize Docusign to accelerate and simplify the process of doing business, and more than 25,000 customers are on IAM today.

Latest annual: FY2026 10-K
DOCU · DocuSign
I

The business

What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.

Revenue · FY2026
$3.2B
+8.2% YoY · 17% 5-yr CAGR
Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average
Revenue $3.3B 5-yr avg $2.7B
Gross margin 79% 5-yr avg 79%
Operating margin 10.6% 5-yr avg 2.1%
ROIC 22% 5-yr avg 8%
Owner-earnings margin 34% 5-yr avg 27%
Free cash flow margin 34% 5-yr avg 27%

The business in brief

read the 10-K →

What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.

What moves the needle
Operating margin has run around −10% through the cycle on a 77% gross margin, the operating line in the red even at its best — so the lever is whether the spending below the gross line can come down enough to clear a profit: revenue growth against the cost curve, and the cash runway until it does. Read this kind of business on retention and the cost of growth. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on customer concentration, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
Is it a good business?
Return on capital has rarely cleared the cost of capital (median −10%, above 15% in 1 of 7 years). The steadier read is owner earnings: roughly 16% of revenue reaches owners as cash, consistently. This is price-taker territory, where the balance sheet and the cycle matter more than any multiple; the rest is in the 10-K.

Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.

Where the money comes from

read the 10-K →

29% of revenue comes from outside the United States.

Revenue by geography, FY2026
  • United States71%$2.3B
  • International29%$945M

From the segment footnote of the company's own 10-K. Shares are of total revenue; the profit bar shows each segment's share of segment operating profit, before unallocated corporate costs.

II

The record

Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.

The record, 2017–2026

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left
2017’172018’182019’192020’202021’212022’222023’232024’242025’252026’26TTMTTMApr 2026
Income statement
$381M$519M$701M$974M$1.5B$2.1B$2.5B$2.8B$3.0B$3.2B$3.3BRevenueRevenue
73%77%73%75%75%78%79%79%79%79%79%Gross marginGross mgn
17%16%30%15%13%11%13%15%13%12%12%SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev
24%18%27%19%19%19%19%20%20%21%20%R&D / revenueR&D/rev
($116M)($52M)($426M)($194M)($174M)($62M)($88M)$32M$200M$299M$350MOperating incomeOp. inc.
−30.4%−10.0%−60.8%−19.9%−12.0%−2.9%−3.5%1.1%6.7%9.3%10.6%Operating marginOp. mgn
($115M)($52M)($426M)($208M)($243M)($70M)($97M)$74M$1.1B$309M$315MNet incomeNet inc.
21%11%19%Effective tax rateTax rate
Cash flow & returns
($5M)$55M$76M$116M$297M$506M$507M$980M$1.0B$1.2B$1.2BOperating cash flowOp. cash
$28M$32M$38M$50M$71M$82M$86M$95M$108M$116M$118MDepreciationDeprec.
$82M$76M$465M$274M$469M$495M$518M$810M($158M)$740M$802MWorking capital & otherWC & other
$43M$19M$30M$72M$82M$61M$78M$92M$97M$106M$115MCapexCapex
11.4%3.7%4.3%7.4%5.7%2.9%3.1%3.3%3.3%3.3%3.5%Capex / revenueCapex/rev
($33M)$36M$46M$66M$215M$445M$429M$887M$920M$1.1B$1.1BOwner earningsOwner earn.
−8.7%7.0%6.5%6.7%14.8%21.1%17.1%32.1%30.9%32.9%34.1%Owner earnings marginOE mgn
($48M)$36M$46M$44M$215M$445M$429M$887M$920M$1.1B$1.1BFree cash flowFCF
−12.6%7.0%6.5%4.5%14.8%21.1%17.1%32.1%30.9%32.9%34.1%Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
$0$0$0$0$180M$6M$0$0$144M$0$0AcquisitionsAcquis.
$0$0$63M$146M$684M$869MBuybacksBuybacks
-63%-20%-30%-10%8%15%20%22%ROICROIC
-69%-38%-75%-25%-16%7%53%16%17%Return on equityROE
−69%−38%−75%−25%−16%7%53%16%17%Retained to equityRetained/eq
Balance sheet
$191M$257M$518M$241M$566M$509M$722M$797M$649M$602M$548MCash & investmentsCash+inv
$124M$175M$238M$324M$441M$517M$439M$430M$516M$301MReceivablesReceiv.
$24M$20M$28M$37M$53M$24M$19M$31M$17M$24MAccounts payablePayables
$100M$155M$210M$286M$388M$493M$420M$399M$499M$277MOperating working capitalOper. WC
$419M$985M$944M$1.2B$1.3B$1.6B$1.6B$1.5B$1.5B$1.3BCurrent assetsCur. assets
$374M$516M$694M$1.1B$1.4B$2.2B$1.7B$1.8B$2.0B$1.9BCurrent liabilitiesCur. liab.
1.1×1.9×1.4×1.1×1.0×0.7×0.9×0.8×0.7×0.7×Current ratioCurr. ratio
$36M$37M$195M$195M$350M$355M$354M$353M$454M$458M$459MGoodwillGoodwill
$620M$1.6B$1.9B$2.3B$2.5B$3.0B$3.0B$4.0B$4.2B$4.0BTotal assetsAssets
$0$439M$465M$693M$718M$0$0Total debtDebt
($257M)($79M)$224M$127M$209M($722M)($548M)Net debt / (cash)Net debt
-189.6×-82.8×-39.3×-6.6×-5.6×-9.6×-13.8×4.6×129.0×117.3×133.5×Interest coverageInt. cov.
($347M)($339M)$614M$546M$326M$276M$617M$1.1B$2.0B$1.9B$1.8BShareholders’ equityEquity
Per share
112M129M135M177M186M197M201M209M210M209M196MShares out (diluted)Shares
$3.40$4.01$5.19$5.51$7.82$10.71$12.52$13.22$14.15$15.40$16.72Revenue / shareRev/sh
$-1.03$-0.40$-3.16$-1.18$-1.31$-0.36$-0.49$0.35$5.08$1.48$1.60EPS (diluted)EPS
$-0.30$0.28$0.34$0.37$1.16$2.26$2.14$4.25$4.38$5.06$5.70Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$-0.43$0.28$0.34$0.25$1.16$2.26$2.14$4.25$4.38$5.06$5.70Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$0.39$0.15$0.23$0.41$0.44$0.31$0.39$0.44$0.46$0.51$0.59Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$-3.10$-2.62$4.55$3.09$1.75$1.40$3.07$5.41$9.52$9.17$9.26Book value / shareBVPS

Share counts before 2019 are restated ×4 for a stock split, so per-share figures sit on one basis.

Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded
9-yr5-yr
Revenue / share+18.3%/yr+14.5%/yr
Owner earnings / share+34.4%/yr
Capital spending / share+3.1%/yr+2.8%/yr
Book value / share+39.2%/yr

The record, charted

FY2017–2026

Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked. Share counts on the current split basis.

Share count
209Mpeak FY2025
ROIC
20%low FY2019
Gross margin
79%low FY2019

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

The accountant's number, and the cash an owner can take; the gap is the tell.

$1.1Bowner earningsvs.$309Mnet incomelow FY2017

Where the cash went

ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetained

Each year's operating cash, by what management did with it: the mix, and how it drifts.

FY2018FY2026

Net income is the accountant's number; owner earnings is the cash an owner could take out. The walk between them, off the cash-flow statement, and whether the gap is widening or holding.

In fiscal 2026 the business turned $309M of profit into $1.1B of owner earnings: more cash than the profit line showed, after the non-cash charges and the capital it put back in.

Reported net income$309M
Owner earnings$1.1B · 33% of revenue
FY2026FY2025FY2024FY2023FY2022
Reported net income$309M$1.1B$74M($97M)($70M)
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back+$116M+$108M+$95M+$86M+$82M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items+$740M−$158M+$810M+$518M+$495M
Cash from operations$1.2B$1.0B$980M$507M$506M
Capital expenditurecash put back in to keep running and to grow−$106M−$97M−$92M−$78M−$61M
Owner earnings$1.1B$920M$887M$429M$445M
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue33%31%32%17%21%

Owner earnings is the cash an owner could pull out without starving the business: operating cash less the capital it must spend to hold its position .

Maintenance capex is estimated as depreciation where a growing business invests above it; free cash flow is the figure the scorecard's free-cash margin reads.

III

Quality & stewardship

Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.

Owner’s Scorecard

FY2026 10-K · source on SEC EDGAR →

Will it survive?

  • Comfortable
    Operating income $299M ÷ interest expense $3M
    What this means

    Operating profit covers interest with the kind of margin Graham wanted for a defensive holding. Necessary, not sufficient, it says solvent, not cheap.

  • Net cash, debt-free
    Cash $602M − debt $0
    What this means

    Cash and short-term investments exceed every dollar of debt by $602M, on net the company owes nothing, and can act from strength when others can't. Net debt is the leverage figure that matters: the cash is already set against the debt. Strategic or illiquid investments aren't counted here.

  • Tight
    DSO 59 + DIO 0 − DPO 10 days
    What this means

    Days cash is tied up between paying suppliers and collecting from customers. Lower is better; a long cycle means growth itself eats cash. (Little or no inventory, a services / asset-light model, so the inventory leg is ~0.)

Is it a good business?

  • Below average through the cycle
    7-yr median, range -63%–20%; 20% latest = NOPAT $266M ÷ invested capital $1.3B
    Industry peers: median -1%
    What this means

    The rate the business earns on the money tied up in it, Buffett's north star, because over time a stock tracks the ROIC beneath it. Above ~15% sustained hints at a moat; a return below the cost of capital (~8%) erodes value as a business grows rather than building it — the test Buffett weighs most. The headline is the median of the last 7 years (it ran 20% most recently), so one peak or trough year doesn't set the verdict. Asset-light businesses (R&D expensed, little capital) read artificially high, pair this with Owner Earnings.

  • Solid through the cycle
    10-yr median margin, range -9%–33%; latest $1.1B = operating cash $1.2B − maintenance capex $106M
    Industry peers: median 19%
    What this means

    What an owner could take out without starving the business: operating cash less the maintenance capital it must spend to hold its position — Buffett's owner earnings. That's 33% of revenue this year, a 15% median across 10 years.

  • Cash-backed
    Cash from ops $1.2B ÷ net income $309M
    What this means

    How much of reported profit showed up as operating cash. Above 1× is reassuring; well below suggests earnings lean on accruals. One year is noisy, growth and working-capital swings distort it, and this is operating cash, not free cash. Watch the multi-year trend.

How is the cash used?

  • Returns about half
    Dividends + buybacks $869M ÷ Owner Earnings $1.1B
    What this means

    Of $1.1B Owner Earnings, $869M (82%) went back to shareholders, $0 dividends, $869M buybacks. Returning most of it is the mark of a mature business with little left to reinvest at a high return; reinvesting most could mean a long runway, or empire-building. The split doesn't say which; the return earned on it (see ROIC) does.

  • Investing or harvesting? 0.92×
    Maintaining
    Capex $106M ÷ depreciation $116M
    What this means

    Descriptive, not a grade. Above ~1× means investing faster than assets wear out (growth, or, sustained for years, today's earnings carrying less depreciation than tomorrow's will). Below means spending less than it's wearing out (efficiency, or a melting asset base). The ratio won't tell you which; the filings will.

Graham’s defensive tests · 1 of 5 met

Graham’s numerical criteria for the defensive investor (The Intelligent Investor, ch. 14), run on the filings. A floor of safety, not a buy signal; many fine modern businesses fail his strictest liquidity rules by design.

  • Adequate size Pass
    Revenue ≥ $2B · $3.2B
    What this means

    Big enough to weather a storm. Graham's 1972 floor was ~$100M of sales (≈ $700M today); we use a $2B revenue line as a conservative modern stand-in.

  • Strong liquidity Miss
    Current ratio ≥ 2× · 0.73×
    What this means

    Current assets at least twice current liabilities, near-term bills covered without touching the business. Strict by design: many cash-rich modern firms run leaner and miss it, holding their cushion in longer-dated securities.

  • Conservative debt Miss
    Debt ≤ working capital · $0 vs ($549M) WC
    What this means

    Graham's rule that borrowings not exceed net current assets. Capital-heavy and buyback-heavy firms routinely fail it, read it next to interest coverage, not alone.

  • Earnings stability Miss
    A profit every year (10-yr record) · 7 loss years
    What this means

    Graham wanted earnings in each of the past ten years, the stability a defensive owner leans on.

  • Dividend record Miss
    Uninterrupted dividends · none paid
    What this means

    An unbroken dividend was Graham's mark of durability. He wanted twenty years; the filings show about ten, and a single suspension breaks the streak. Non-payers, many fine modern compounders, fall outside his defensive net by design.

  • Earnings growth
    Earnings +33% over the record ·
    What this means

    Earnings were negative early in the record, a growth rate isn't meaningful.

  • Moderate price
    P/E ≤ 15 and P/E × P/B ≤ 22.5 · decided by the price
    What this means

    Graham's valuation gate, the wall he kept between a sound business and a sound investment. Three-year average earnings are $2.53/share (latest year $1.62), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $10.04/share. Enter a price in “What the price implies” just below for the P/E, P/B, and whether it clears. But this is the rule Buffett outgrew: there's no hard P/E law, and a wonderful business can deserve a far richer multiple if the thesis holds, treat it as the bargain-hunter's floor, not a verdict on the price.

Durability & moat, 2017–2026

Whether the record’s returns held, and what the capital reinvested earned.

  • Profitable years 3 of 10
    What this means

    Lost money in 7 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.

  • Return on capital ≥ 15% 0 of 4 yrs
    What this means

    A moat shows up as a high return on invested capital that holds year after year, not one good vintage.

  • Operating margin −34% → 6% (3-yr avg ends)
    What this means

    Through the cycle the operating margin widened — about −34% early to 6% lately, median −10% — pricing power intact or improving.

  • Reinvestment, incremental ROIC returns capital
    What this means

    The capital base barely grew: this business returns cash through dividends and buybacks rather than reinvesting. Judge it on the cash returned, not on compounding.

  • Owner earnings growth +107%/yr
    What this means

    Owner earnings grew about 107% a year over the record.

  • Worst year 2019 · −60.8% op. margin
    What this means

    Operations went underwater in 2019, understand why before trusting the good years.

Does AI threaten the moat?

Elevated contestability

The product is software or information, the very thing capable AI now produces more cheaply, so the moat is more contestable than the record alone implies.

In its own filing A competitive risk, new this year

Its FY2026 10-K names artificial intelligence as a competitive threat, in language that was not in the prior year's filing.

“Disruptions to our business, strategy and demand for our solutions due to advances in, and uses of, AI and other technologies.”

AI has collapsed the cost of building a capable substitute for the very thing this business sells. When a credible alternative can be assembled for a fraction of the incumbent's price, it is pricing power that erodes first, not revenue tomorrow. The live question is whether the moat survives that, not whether it held in the past. Whether that question is answerable at all is yours to decide, against your own circle of competence.

Read from the filing's own risk factors, paired with the industry's structure under its SIC code; the durability is read above, the price below.

All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.

Current Position

as of the latest quarter, Apr 30, 2026

Can the business pay what it owes this year, off the freshest balance sheet: the quality of the assets, the debt actually coming due, and what a low ratio means here.

Current assets$1.3B
  • Cash & short-term investments$548M
  • Receivables$301M
  • Other current assets$407M
Current liabilities$1.9B
  • Accounts payable$24M
  • Other current liabilities$1.9B
Current ratio0.66×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×
Quick ratio0.66×stricter: inventory excluded
Cash ratio0.29×strictest: cash alone against what's due
Working capital($633M)the cushion left after near-term bills
Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago+8.7%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing
Current ratio, recent quarters0.8× → 0.7×
Deeper floors
Tangible book value$1.3Bequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles
Net current asset value($909M)Graham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities
Debt incl. operating leases$183M$183M of it operating leases
Deferred revenue$1.6Bcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float

From the company's latest filing.

How the cash was used, 2017–2026

Over the record, the business generated $4.7B of operating cash; how management split it reads as a balanced allocator, splitting cash between the business, owners, and the balance sheet.

  • Reinvested$682M · 14%
  • Buybacks$1.8B · 37%
  • Retained (debt / cash)$2.3B · 48%
  • Returned to owners$1.8B

    43% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $0 as dividends and $1.8B as buybacks.

  • Average price paid for buybacks$65.34

    Across the years where the filing reports a share count, 27M shares were bought for $1.8B, about $65.34 each. Year to year the price paid ranged from $47.59 (2024) to $73.40 (2026), and 2026, near the top of that range, was also its heaviest buyback year ($869M).

  • Net change in share count75.3%

    The diluted count rose from 112M to 196M: issuance (stock pay, deals) outran any buybacks, so owners were diluted on net.

  • Dividend record

    No dividend line was reported in the filing data over the span; the record here neither confirms nor rules out a payout.

Buybacks are gross of stock issued to staff; the share-count line above is the net of that, the figure that decides whether owners gained. The average price paid blends a year of purchases (and any accelerated repurchase), so it is close, not exact. The record of where the cash went and on what terms.

Management, ownership & pay

read the proxy →

From the proxy: how much of the business the people running it own, and how they are paid.

  • Insider ownership<1%

    The stake all directors and executive officers hold together, per the 2026 proxy: skin in the game, the first thing Munger reads.

  • CEO pay ratio116:1

    What the chief earns for every dollar the median employee makes, per the 2026 proxy. A high ratio alone settles nothing; some businesses are genuinely top-heavy in scarce skill. A runaway figure is where Buffett starts asking whether the board is doing its job.

Inverting the record

Invert: instead of why DocuSign is a good business, the question is what would make owning it a mistake, and whether those marks are in the record. Disconfirming tests across 2017–2026.

1 of the 3 tests turned up something to look into; the other 2 came back clean.

  • Look hereDid the share count rise anyway?75.3%

    Diluted shares grew 75.3% over 2017–2026, even as the company spent $1.8B on buybacks. The repurchases were outrun by issuance — to staff, in a raise, or in a deal — and the filing says which; owners' slice still shrank. Read the buyback line beside this one, not on its own.

And these came back clean
  • Is it less profitable than it was?
  • Did reported profit become cash?

Each test is read from the filings and is noisy alone; a flag can mark a cyclical trough or a year of heavy investment as easily as a problem. The filing says which.

What an owner would ask, FY2026

read the 10-K →
  • Which reported numbers are a judgment call?
    Management names Revenue recognition, Income taxes, Acquisitions, Stock compensation as critical estimates

    each rests partly on management's judgment; the filing's note sets out the assumptionsverify →

The questions the record and the charts do not answer on their own; each carries the figure and the place to look.

Peers, Software

The same industry, side by side on owner economics. Each figure is a through-cycle median, so a peak or trough year can’t distort it; the group median at the foot is the line to read each against.

CompanyRevenueGross marginOp. marginROICOwner earn. margin
DDOGDatadog Inc.$3.4B78%-2.3%-1%23%
DOCUDocuSign$3.2B78%-6.7%-10%16%
VEEVVeeva Systems Inc.$3.2B72%25.5%20%34%
HUBSHubSpot Inc.$3.1B81%-6.5%-6%13%
OKTAOkta Inc.$2.9B72%-30.8%-8%7%
PTCPTC Inc.$2.7B79%21.1%10%19%
ANSSAnsys Inc.$2.5B87%31.7%13%30%
NTNXNutanix$2.5B79%-26.6%-190%-1%
Group median78%-4.4%-4%17%
IV

The price

What a price has to assume.

What the price implies

reverse-DCF

Type today's close and see the owner-earnings growth you'd have to believe to justify it, beside what DocuSign has delivered.

DocuSign’s latest year runs above its own through-cycle margin — the reported figure may flatter a peak. So the tool opens on the through-cycle base, Graham’s averaging cutting both ways; clear the toggle below to read the latest year exactly as reported.

$

Through the cycle, DocuSign earns about $512M on its 15.9% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 32.9% margin runs above that; the reported figure may flatter a peak you'd be paying on. Normalize, below, values the price on that through-cycle figure rather than the latest year. It comes pre-checked here for that reason, the same rule that already normalizes a trough; clear it to price the year as filed.

Base

The assumptions

9.0% = the 4.55% 10-year Treasury (Jul 15, 2026) + 4.45 points of equity premium. The rate you require is yours to set.

Enter a price above to run it.

Implied by the price
Owner-earnings growth · ’22→’26+23%/yr
Owner-earnings growth · since FY2018+53%/yr
Owner-earnings yield
P/E (3-yr earnings ’24–’26)
P/B
Graham’s price gate

Graham capped the multiple at 15×; Buffett and Munger let that rule go: a wonderful business can deserve 50× if the thesis holds. The gate marks the bargain-hunter's floor.

Against a high-grade bond: Graham’s yardstick bond yield%

Prefilled with the 10-year Treasury (4.55%, as of Jul 15, 2026). Edit it for today’s exact figure, or a AAA corporate yield.

Graham measured a stock against the bond you could own instead, the heart of his margin of safety. Enter a price above to weigh the owner-earnings yield against this bond.

Owner earnings $1.1B on 191M shares outstanding, per the 10-Q cover, as of 2026-05-29; net cash $548M. The base opens on the through-cycle figure (the latest year sits above the record’s own median, and Graham’s averaging cuts both ways); clear Normalize to use the year as filed. Net of stock comp treats option pay as the expense it is. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.

Cite: Owner Scorecard, "DocuSign (DOCU), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/DOCU, data as of 2026-07-09.

Manual order: ← DOCS its page in the Manual DOLE →

Industry order: ← DOCN the Software chapter DOMO →