What happened

Shares of DocuSign (DOCU -2.38%) surged 20% on Friday, after the e-signature leader delivered sterling first-quarter results.  

So what

DocuSign's revenue jumped 58% year over year to $469.1 million, while its adjusted earnings per share rocketed 267%, to $0.44. Both figures were comfortably ahead of Wall Street's expectations for revenue and adjusted EPS of $437.6 million and $0.28, respectively.

An upwardly sloping bar chart.

Investors cheered DocuSign's impressive first-quarter growth metrics. Image source: Getty Images.

Better still, DocuSign continues to crank out cash. Its operating cash flow rose 129% to $135.6 million, while its free cash flow increased 275% to $123 million.

"We've increasingly become the way people agree in this emerging-anywhere economy -- and that's not only helping organizations continue operations during the pandemic, but helping them realize new and more efficient ways of doing business in the future," DocuSign CEO Dan Springer said in a press release.

Now what

The COVID-19 crisis has accelerated the shift toward remote work, and DocuSign's digital agreement technology is helping to enable this trend. Innovations such as its new DocuSign Notary solution -- which will allow its customers to virtually notarize agreements -- should prove popular in massive markets, such as real estate closings, that are increasingly moving toward online transactions. And as the leader in the important, emerging field of digital agreements, DocuSign's revenue and profit growth could continue to impress investors for many years to come.