Comparing DocuSign (NASDAQ:DOCU) & Where Food Comes From (NASDAQ:WFCF)

DocuSign (NASDAQ:DOCU) and Where Food Comes From (NASDAQ:WFCF) are both business services companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, valuation, risk, institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations and dividends.

Profitability

This table compares DocuSign and Where Food Comes From’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
DocuSign	3.81%	15.44%	5.04%
Where Food Comes From	8.68%	20.76%	13.18%

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings for DocuSign and Where Food Comes From, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
DocuSign	2	8	2	0	2.00
Where Food Comes From	0	0	0	0	N/A

DocuSign presently has a consensus target price of $59.36, indicating a potential upside of 6.20%. Given DocuSign’s higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe DocuSign is more favorable than Where Food Comes From.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares DocuSign and Where Food Comes From’s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
DocuSign	$2.76 billion	4.14	$73.98 million	$0.52	107.50
Where Food Comes From	$25.14 million	2.50	$2.15 million	$0.39	29.90

DocuSign has higher revenue and earnings than Where Food Comes From. Where Food Comes From is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than DocuSign, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

77.6% of DocuSign shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 18.8% of Where Food Comes From shares are held by institutional investors. 1.7% of DocuSign shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 49.2% of Where Food Comes From shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk & Volatility

DocuSign has a beta of 0.94, suggesting that its stock price is 6% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Where Food Comes From has a beta of 0.51, suggesting that its stock price is 49% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

DocuSign beats Where Food Comes From on 9 of the 13 factors compared between the two stocks.

About DocuSign

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. It also provides Identify, a signer-identification option for checking government-issued IDs; Standards-Based Signatures, which support signatures that involve digital certificates; Monitor that uses advanced analytics to track DocuSign eSignature web, mobile, and API account; Notary which enables notaries public to conduct remote online notarization transactions; and Web Forms, a web forms that quickly draft agreements using pre-populated data from completed forms or external systems via APIs. In addition, the company offers Rooms for Real Estate that provides a way for brokers and agents to manage the entire real estate transaction digitally. Signature and CLM are FedRAMP, an authorized version of DocuSign eSignature for U.S. federal government agencies; and life sciences modules that support compliance with the electronic signature practices. The company sells its products through direct and partner-assisted sales, and digital self-service purchasing. DocuSign, Inc. was incorporated in 2003 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

About Where Food Comes From

Where Food Comes From, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a third-party food verification company in North America. The company operates through Verification and Certification, and Professional Services segments. It conducts on-site and desk audits to verify that claims being made about livestock, food, other specialty crops, and agricultural and aquaculture products are accurate, as well as offers Where Food Comes From Source Verified retail and restaurant labeling program, which connects consumers directly to the source of the food they purchase through product labeling, and web-based information sharing and education. It also offers professional services and technology solutions; verification solutions; and consulting services, as well as sells hardware. The company serves beef and pork packers, organic producers and processors, and specialty retail chains. The company was formerly known as Integrated Management Information, Inc. and changed its name to Where Food Comes From, Inc. in December 2012. Where Food Comes From, Inc. was founded in 1996 and is based in Castle Rock, Colorado.