DOCU vs ADBE Stock Comparison: AI Score, Valuation, Performance and Upside
DocuSign is a more narrowly focused e-signature and agreement management company facing questions about growth reacceleration, while Adobe is a large, diversified software franchise spanning creative, document, and marketing tools with its own generative AI expansion underway. The comparison generally weighs DocuSign's turnaround and platform-expansion potential against Adobe's scale, diversification, and AI integration across a much broader product suite.
This comparison is best used to weigh a smaller, more narrowly focused software company working to reaccelerate growth against a large, diversified software leader integrating generative AI across an already dominant product portfolio.
ADBE holds the edge across 4 of 5 key metrics in this comparison. DOCU has delivered stronger 1-year price return (+14.15% vs -23.88%), though ADBE has the better forward P/E setup (9.12x vs 12.74x for DOCU). ADBE leads on both revenue growth (12.70%) and operating margin (35.33%), suggesting a stronger fundamental setup on both dimensions. Analyst consensus implies meaningfully more upside for ADBE (+10.63%) than for DOCU (-9.48%).
Human Wall Street analysts' price targets, typically implying a ~12-month view — a separate signal from this site's own AI Prediction Signal further down the page, which is a 5-/30-day machine-learning forecast based on price history alone.
- Want exposure to a category leader in e-signature and agreement management
- Believe the Intelligent Agreement Management platform expansion can reaccelerate growth
- Are comfortable with a smaller, more narrowly focused software business
- Look for a lower valuation multiple relative to larger software peers
- Want diversified exposure across creative, document, and marketing software
- Believe generative AI features will strengthen rather than threaten Adobe's core franchise
- Value a large, embedded subscriber base and durable recurring revenue
- Prefer scale and diversification over concentrated exposure to a single product category
| Metric | DOCU | ADBE |
|---|---|---|
| AI scorei | 34.5 | 41.0 |
| AI ranki | #2026 | #1025 |
| Latest closei | $77.52 | $251.67 |
| 1M returni | +7.89% | -2.36% |
| 3M returni | +45.22% | +6.95% |
| 6M returni | +68.30% | +1.41% |
| 1Y returni | +14.15% | -23.88% |
How much would $10,000 be worth today if invested at the start of each period, with all dividends reinvested?
| Period | DOCU | ADBE |
|---|---|---|
| 1Y ago | $11.55K (+15.5%) started 2025-10-16 | $7.64K (-23.6%) started 2025-10-16 |
| 5Y ago | $2.87K (-71.3%) started 2021-10-18 | $4.04K (-59.6%) started 2021-10-18 |
| 10Y ago | $19.51K (+95.1%) started 2018-04-27 | $23.41K (+134.1%) started 2016-10-17 |
Hypothetical — past performance does not guarantee future results.
| Metric | DOCU | ADBE |
|---|---|---|
| Market capi | $12.39B | $100.26B |
| Trailing P/Ei | 42.15 | 14.08 |
| Forward P/Ei | 12.74 | 9.12 |
| Price/Salesi | N/A | 8.06 |
| EV/Revenuei | 3.56 | 3.98 |
| Analyst targeti | $58.76 | $279.05 |
| Target upsidei | -9.48% | +10.63% |
| Metric | DOCU | ADBE |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue growthi | 8.70% | 12.70% |
| Earnings growthi | 17.60% | 7.90% |
| EPS growthi | +17.60% | +7.90% |
| FCF margini | +38.05% | +36.58% |
| Operating margini | 13.41% | 35.33% |
| Profit margini | 9.59% | 28.69% |
| ROIC proxyi | 16.44% | 62.95% |
| Return on equityi | 16.44% | 62.95% |
| Dividend yieldi | N/A | N/A |
| Payout ratioi | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| Dividend growth streaki | N/A | No increase yet |
| Betai | 0.87 | 1.42 |
| Debt/equityi | 10.07 | 61.44 |
| Current ratioi | 0.67 | 0.75 |
| Quick ratioi | 0.59 | 0.63 |
Over the past year, DOCU and ADBE have moved moderately in the same direction (correlation of 0.65), based on daily returns.
Lower drawdown and smaller single-period drops generally indicate a smoother ride, though they do not guarantee lower future risk.
| Period | Metric | DOCU | ADBE |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Y | Growthi | +15.49% | -23.56% |
| CAGRi | +15.52% | -23.59% | |
| Volatilityi | 47.90% | 41.14% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.45 | -0.56 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.65 | -0.76 | |
| Max drawdowni | 42.92% | 46.26% | |
| Current drawdowni | 0.00% | 30.07% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 22.08% | 24.40% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 26.27% | 27.28% | |
| Max daily dropi | 11.40% | 7.58% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 19.05% | 18.86% | |
| 5Y | Growthi | -71.26% | -59.59% |
| CAGRi | -22.09% | -16.59% | |
| Volatilityi | 58.74% | 38.02% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | -0.19 | -0.40 | |
| Sortino ratioi | -0.26 | -0.53 | |
| Max drawdowni | 86.44% | 71.90% | |
| Current drawdowni | 72.71% | 63.44% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 74.76% | 38.97% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 75.98% | 42.43% | |
| Max daily dropi | 42.22% | 16.79% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 45.88% | 25.31% | |
| 10Y | Growthi | +95.12% | +134.13% |
| CAGRi | +8.21% | +8.88% | |
| Volatilityi | 56.19% | 35.20% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.35 | 0.29 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.49 | 0.40 | |
| Max drawdowni | 87.57% | 71.90% | |
| Current drawdowni | 75.00% | 63.44% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 51.17% | 22.03% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 60.95% | 30.42% | |
| Max daily dropi | 42.22% | 16.79% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 45.88% | 25.31% |
| Category | DOCU | ADBE |
|---|---|---|
| Company | DocuSign | Adobe |
| Sector | Technology | Technology |
| Industry | Software - Application | Software - Application |
| Core business | DocuSign provides e-signature and agreement management software that helps organizations create, sign, and manage digital contracts and related workflows. | Adobe provides creative, document, and digital marketing software, including Photoshop, Acrobat, and Experience Cloud, increasingly enhanced with generative AI features like Firefly. |
| Investor focus | Investors track DocuSign's billings growth, net revenue retention, and progress expanding beyond e-signature into its broader Intelligent Agreement Management platform. | Investors track Adobe's Creative Cloud and Document Cloud subscription growth, monetization of generative AI features, and competitive positioning against emerging AI-native creative tools. |
- Category-defining brand recognition in e-signature software
- High gross margins typical of a mature SaaS business
- Expanding platform strategy into contract lifecycle and AI-driven agreement analytics
- Dominant, diversified franchise across creative, document, and marketing software
- Large embedded subscriber base supporting durable recurring revenue
- Early mover in embedding generative AI directly into widely used creative tools
- Core e-signature market growth has matured, pressuring top-line growth rates
- Competitive pressure from bundled offerings inside larger software suites
- Success of platform expansion into new products remains unproven at scale
- Competitive threat from AI-native creative and design startups
- Slower growth in a maturing Creative Cloud subscriber base
- Execution risk in monetizing new AI features without cannibalizing existing subscriptions
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