Iron Mountain (IRM) and The Competition Critical Contrast

Iron Mountain (NYSE:IRM) is one of 35 public companies in the “Specialized REITs” industry, but how does it compare to its competitors? We will compare Iron Mountain to related businesses based on the strength of its profitability, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, dividends and risk.

Profitability

This table compares Iron Mountain and its competitors’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Iron Mountain	3.76%	-91.56%	3.18%
Iron Mountain Competitors	-2.09%	-3.87%	2.06%

Institutional & Insider Ownership

80.1% of Iron Mountain shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 78.0% of shares of all “Specialized REITs” companies are owned by institutional investors. 1.7% of Iron Mountain shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 7.6% of shares of all “Specialized REITs” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Dividends

Iron Mountain pays an annual dividend of $3.45 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. Iron Mountain pays out 379.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. As a group, “Specialized REITs” companies pay a dividend yield of 3.3% and pay out 122.4% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. Iron Mountain has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years. Iron Mountain lags its competitors as a dividend stock, given its lower dividend yield and higher payout ratio.

Volatility & Risk

Iron Mountain has a beta of 1.2, suggesting that its share price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Iron Mountain’s competitors have a beta of 0.96, suggesting that their average share price is 4% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations and price targets for Iron Mountain and its competitors, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Iron Mountain	0	2	4	0	2.67
Iron Mountain Competitors	499	2670	3528	187	2.49

Iron Mountain presently has a consensus target price of $135.17, suggesting a potential upside of 10.66%. As a group, “Specialized REITs” companies have a potential upside of 11.94%. Given Iron Mountain’s competitors higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Iron Mountain has less favorable growth aspects than its competitors.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Iron Mountain and its competitors revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Iron Mountain	$7.25 billion	$144.59 million	134.22
Iron Mountain Competitors	$2.64 billion	$596.00 million	36.66

Iron Mountain has higher revenue, but lower earnings than its competitors. Iron Mountain is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its competitors, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Summary

Iron Mountain beats its competitors on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

Iron Mountain Company Profile

Iron Mountain Incorporated (NYSE: IRM) is a global leader in information management services. Founded in 1951 and trusted by more than 240,000 customers worldwide, Iron Mountain serves to protect and elevate the power of our customers’ work. Through a range of offerings including digital transformation, data centers, secure records storage, information management, asset lifecycle management, secure destruction and art storage and logistics, Iron Mountain helps businesses bring light to their dark data, enabling customers to unlock value and intelligence from their stored digital and physical assets at speed and with security, while helping them meet their environmental goals.