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 (-13.55% vs -17.92%), though ADBE has the better forward P/E setup (10.60x vs 13.00x 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 (-7.17%) than for DOCU (-12.67%).
- 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 score | 33.0 | 46.1 |
| AI rank | #1975 | #668 |
| Latest close | $66.27 | $292.79 |
| 1M return | +20.86% | +16.92% |
| 6M return | +47.04% | +12.23% |
| 1Y return | -13.55% | -17.92% |
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 | $8.95K (-10.5%) started 2025-09-02 | $8.47K (-15.3%) started 2025-09-02 |
| 5Y ago | $2.24K (-77.6%) started 2021-08-31 | $4.4K (-56.0%) started 2021-09-01 |
| 10Y ago | $16.68K (+66.8%) started 2018-04-27 | $28.45K (+184.5%) started 2016-09-01 |
Hypothetical — past performance does not guarantee future results.
| Metric | DOCU | ADBE |
|---|---|---|
| Market cap | $12.65B | $115.88B |
| Trailing P/E | 43.03 | 16.67 |
| Forward P/E | 13.00 | 10.60 |
| Price/Sales | 3.85 | 8.06 |
| EV/Revenue | 3.53 | 4.66 |
| Analyst target | $57.88 | $270.61 |
| Target upside | -12.67% | -7.17% |
| Metric | DOCU | ADBE |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue growth | 8.70% | 12.70% |
| Earnings growth | 17.60% | 7.90% |
| EPS growth | +17.60% | +7.90% |
| FCF margin | +38.05% | +36.58% |
| Operating margin | 13.41% | 35.33% |
| Profit margin | 9.59% | 28.69% |
| ROIC proxy | 16.44% | 62.95% |
| Return on equity | 16.44% | 62.95% |
| Dividend yield | 0.00% | N/A |
| Beta | 0.87 | 1.40 |
| Debt/equity | 10.07 | 61.44 |
| Current ratio | 0.67 | 0.75 |
| Quick ratio | 0.59 | 0.63 |
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 | Growth | -10.53% | -15.29% |
| CAGR | -10.59% | -15.37% | |
| Sharpe ratio | -0.07 | -0.34 | |
| Max drawdown | 50.89% | 47.37% | |
| Max daily drop | 12.24% | 7.58% | |
| Max wkly drop | 19.05% | 18.86% | |
| 5Y | Growth | -77.63% | -56.03% |
| CAGR | -25.88% | -15.16% | |
| Sharpe ratio | -0.28 | -0.37 | |
| Max drawdown | 87.57% | 71.90% | |
| Max daily drop | 42.22% | 16.79% | |
| Max wkly drop | 45.88% | 25.31% | |
| 10Y | Growth | +66.80% | +184.54% |
| CAGR | +6.32% | +11.03% | |
| Sharpe ratio | 0.32 | 0.35 | |
| Max drawdown | 87.57% | 71.90% | |
| Max daily drop | 42.22% | 16.79% | |
| Max wkly drop | 45.88% | 25.31% |
| Category | DOCU | ADBE |
|---|---|---|
| Company | DocuSign | Adobe |
| Sector | Software | Technology |
| Industry | N/A | 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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