Alliancebernstein L.P. Buys 156,518 Shares of DocuSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:DOCU)

Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its stake in shares of DocuSign, Inc. (NASDAQ:DOCU) by 70.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 378,780 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 156,518 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. owned 0.19% of DocuSign worth $34,067,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its holdings in DocuSign by 2.4% during the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 53,508 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,322,000 after purchasing an additional 1,248 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its stake in DocuSign by 13.1% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 12,110 shares of the company’s stock valued at $752,000 after buying an additional 1,398 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. grew its stake in DocuSign by 8.9% in the 3rd quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 257,385 shares of the company’s stock valued at $15,981,000 after buying an additional 21,028 shares during the last quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. raised its holdings in DocuSign by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd. now owns 80,490 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,998,000 after acquiring an additional 3,466 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp lifted its position in DocuSign by 2.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,372,939 shares of the company’s stock worth $333,604,000 after acquiring an additional 120,743 shares during the last quarter. 77.64% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

DocuSign Trading Down 6.7 %

Shares of DocuSign stock opened at $72.21 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $14.62 billion, a PE ratio of 14.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.94 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a 50 day moving average of $86.02 and a 200-day moving average of $82.17. DocuSign, Inc. has a 1-year low of $48.70 and a 1-year high of $107.86.

DocuSign (NASDAQ:DOCU) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 13th. The company reported $0.86 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.84 by $0.02. DocuSign had a return on equity of 14.90% and a net margin of 34.73%. The firm had revenue of $776.25 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $760.94 million. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.76 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that DocuSign, Inc. will post 1.17 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at DocuSign

In other news, CFO Blake Jeffrey Grayson sold 16,111 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $83.20, for a total value of $1,340,435.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 93,960 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,817,472. This represents a 14.64 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Teresa Briggs sold 534 shares of DocuSign stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $87.41, for a total transaction of $46,676.94. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 8,270 shares in the company, valued at $722,880.70. This trade represents a 6.07 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 57,851 shares of company stock valued at $4,911,319 over the last ninety days. 1.66% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on DOCU. UBS Group decreased their target price on DocuSign from $100.00 to $90.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 14th. Robert W. Baird set a $93.00 price objective on DocuSign in a report on Friday, March 14th. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “hold” rating on shares of DocuSign in a report on Friday, March 14th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $90.00 price target on shares of DocuSign in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Finally, Bank of America dropped their price objective on shares of DocuSign from $112.00 to $98.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 14th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $95.83.

DocuSign Company Profile

DocuSign, Inc provides electronic signature solution in the United States and internationally. The company provides e-signature solution that enables sending and signing of agreements on various devices; Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM), which automates workflows across the entire agreement process; Document Generation streamlines the process of generating new, custom agreements; and Gen for Salesforce, which allows sales representatives to automatically generate agreements with a few clicks from within Salesforce.