DocuSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:DOCU) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

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Mark Murphy: Okay. Thank you. And congrats on the nice execution in Q1.

Cynthia Gaylor: Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Brent Thill with Jefferies. Please proceed with your question.

Brent Thill: Thanks. Allan, just following up on the overall environment, I mean, would you characterize what you’re seeing now is pretty consistent with what you saw last quarter? Or if things stabilized, maybe improved a little bit? Just trying to understand the shape of what you’ve seen quarter-over-quarter.

Allan Thygesen: I think the macro environment is relatively consistent. And, yes, we, I would say, digging in a little deeper. If you look at it, let’s start with segments, maybe slightly better performance in the SMB segment than in the enterprise segment. I think part of that is larger companies just tend to be more immediately sensitive to the business cycle. They also have centralized purchasing departments and other ways of, I should say, tightening spending in a very directed way. So that subtle change, let’s say, maybe slightly more pronounced this quarter than previous quarter. We continue to grow faster internationally than domestically, but I don’t think that that’s a material change. And from a vertical perspective, as Cynthia mentioned, some strength, but I think those are much the same sectors that we’re doing a little better last time and parts of financial services, obviously, a little bit more challenged.

But by no means all, by the way. So it’s localized, let’s say, a real estate and a few other things. So overall, it’s a pretty balanced picture. I wouldn’t say there were major changes in our environment. We are, of course, hoping to induce more change in the environment for our product roadmap. And we’re excited with the new releases that we had and you’ll see a very rapid pace of new releases over the next few quarters. And so, you have to disrupt that beyond the macro.

Brent Thill: Great. And just a quick follow-up for Cynthia. 27% margin in the quarter, yet you’re guiding 23% for the year. Why such a big step down throughout the year?

Cynthia Gaylor: Yes. So, I mean, we outperformed margins by quite a bit in Q1. And I think it really does demonstrate what we’ve been talking about for a while now, which is leveraging our business model. It’s amazing when you don’t spend money, you can make a lot of money. But that being said, we’re focused on profitability, but also executing on the investments in a disciplined way and I think you kind of saw that in Q1. However, as I mentioned in the prepared remarks, our expectation is to continue to invest as we move through the year. We got a little bit slower start as we kind of evaluated coming into the year to that spend, but we expect to kind of catch up, and so when you get to the end of the year, by quarter, the margin should go down by quarter, which is implied in our guide.

But then also the run rate and [bow wave] (ph) going into next year, like, we’ll be fully invested against that. So that’s the — that’s our process. But we’ll be disciplined. We’re still in the long-term target range, and we’re raising the year by 1 point relative to where we were 90 days ago. So, we’re really pleased with that, but we will invest for the long-term opportunity.

Brent Thill: Thank you.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Alex Zukin with Wolfe Research. Please proceed with your question.

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