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Reporter Name | Murdock Wendy J. |
Relationship | Director |
Type | Sell |
Amount | $989,230 |
SEC Filing | Form 4 |
Iron Mountain Director, Wendy J. Murdock, sold 8,500 shares of common stock on September 17, 2024, at a weighted average price of $116.38 per share, totaling $989,230. Following the transaction, Murdock directly owns 14,829 shares of Iron Mountain.
SEC Filing: IRON MOUNTAIN INC [ IRM ] - Form 4 - Sep. 18, 2024
Portsmouth, New Hampshire-based Iron Mountain Incorporated is the global leader in storage and information management solutions. Its offerings include data centers, secure records storage, information management, asset lifecycle management, secure destruction, art storage, and more. With a market cap of $34.3 billion, Iron Mountain serves over 240,000 customers globally.
Companies worth $10 billion or more are generally described as "large-cap stocks," Iron Mountain fits right into that category, with its market cap exceeding this threshold, reflecting its substantial size, influence, and dominance in the specialty REIT industry.
Iron Mountain touched its all-time high of $118.46 in the previous trading session before slightly pulling back. IRM has surged 34.3% over the past three months, outpacing the iShares Core U.S. REIT ETF’s 18.7% gains during the same time frame.
Over the longer term, IRM stock looks even more appealing. IRM gained 88.1% over the past 52 weeks and 68.9% in 2024, substantially outperforming USRT’s 22.6% gains over the past year and 15.4% returns on a YTD basis.
To confirm the bullish trend, IRM has consistently traded above its 200-day moving average and mostly above its 50-day moving average, with slight fluctuations over the past year.
Shares of Iron Mountain soared 6.8% after the release of its impressive Q2 earnings on Aug. 1. The company reported a robust 13% annual revenue growth of $1.5 billion. This growth was complemented by a 10.2% increase in adjusted funds from operations (AFFO) per share, which climbed to $1.08, surpassing Wall Street’s expectations by 6.9%.
Adding to the positive sentiment, Iron Mountain reaffirmed its strong full-year revenue guidance of $6 billion to 6.2 billion, a notable increase from the previous year’s revenue of $5.5 billion. It also projected AFFO per share to be in the range of $4.39 to 4.51, up from the previous year’s AFFO per share of $4.17, bolstering investor confidence.
Iron Mountain’s competitor, Digital Realty Trust, Inc. , has underperformed IRM over the past year. DLR gained 25% over the past year and 19.5% in 2024.
Among the seven analysts covering the IRM stock, the consensus rating is a “Moderate Buy.” IRM is trading above its mean price target of $102.12. Yet, the Street-high target of $121 represents a potential upside of 2.4% from current price levels.
On the date of publication, Aditya Sarawgi did not have (either directly or indirectly) positions in any of the securities mentioned in this article. All information and data in this article is solely for informational purposes. For more information please view the Barchart Disclosure Policy here.
Iron Mountain IRM is well-positioned to benefit from a stable and resilient core storage and records management business. The company’s accretive buyouts and expansion efforts toward fast-growing businesses like the data center bode well for growth. However, competition from industry peers is likely to lead to aggressive pricing pressure and lower margins. High interest rates add to its woes.
Last August, Iron Mountain announced the availability of a secure software-as-a-service platform - Iron Mountain InSight Digital Experience Platform. The platform allows customers to access, manage, govern, and monetize both physical and digital information.
Shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) real estate investment trust (REIT) have rallied 32.6%, outperforming the industry's upside of 20.4% over the past three months.
What’s Aiding IRM?
IRM derives a majority of its revenues from fixed periodic (usually earned monthly) storage rental fees charged to customers based on the volume of their records stored, ensuring a steady stream of recurring revenues. Iron Mountain’sretention rate for its records management business was 92.8% in the second quarter.In the second quarter of 2024, Iron Mountain’s organic storage rental revenues increased 10.1% from the prior year quarter. We estimate a year-over-year increase of 9.6% in storage rental revenues in 2024. For 2025 and 2026, the metric is expected to witness growth of 8.6% and 9.6%, respectively.
Iron Mountain is supplementing its storage segment’s performance with expansion in its faster-growing businesses, most notable being the data center segment. IRM is making organic growth efforts, along with expansion projects and developments. Such moves will enable the company to capitalize on strong demand for connectivity, interconnection and colocation space and drive leasing activity. In the second quarter, IRM attained data center revenue growth of 29.4%.
Iron Mountain has an aggressive expansion strategy, which includes acquisition and development, to supplement organic growth in storage revenues. The company is focusing on capital recycling by monetizing non-core assets and entering into joint ventures and sale-leaseback transactions, using sale proceeds to fund the development pipeline. Such moves highlight the company’s prudent capital management practices and relieve the pressure on its balance sheet.
Iron Mountain had a total liquidity of approximately $2.3 billion as of June 30, 2024, with a net total lease-adjusted leverage of 5.0X, the lowest level since before the company’s REIT conversion in 2014. It had no significant debt maturities until 2027, and 80% of its net debt was fixed. With this, it has ample financial flexibility to meet its near-term debt obligations and other capital commitments while pursuing growth opportunities.
Solid dividend payouts are arguably the biggest enticements for REIT shareholders, and Iron Mountain remains committed to that. In August 2024, concurrent with its second-quarter 2024 earnings release, it announced a 10% hike in its cash dividend to 71.5 cents per share from 65 cents paid out earlier. Given IRM’shealthy operating platform, our year-over-year adjusted AFFO growth projections of 9.8% for 2024, a lower-than-industry payout ratio and a solid financial position, the increased dividend is likely to be sustainable in the forthcoming period.
What’s Hurting IRM?
The records and information management services industry is highly fragmented, with numerous competitors in North America and worldwide. Although Iron Mountain offers compelling products and has a strong market position, the company faces significant competition. This is likely to result in aggressive pricing and keep margins under pressure going forward.
A high interest rate environment is a concern for IRM. The company may find it difficult to purchase or develop real estate with borrowed funds as the costs are likely to remain elevated. As of June 30, 2024, Iron Mountain’s net debt was approximately $12.89 billion. For 2024, our estimate indicates a year-over-year rise of 17.7% in net interest expenses.
Stocks to Consider
Some better-ranked stocks from the broader REIT sector are Cousins Properties CUZ and Lamar Advertising LAMR, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Cousins Properties’ current-year FFO per share has been raised marginally over the past two months to $2.66.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Lamar Advertising’s current-year FFO per share has moved northward marginally over the past two months to $8.09.
Note: Anything related to earnings presented in this write-up represents funds from operations (FFO), a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs.V
Zacks Investment Research
Designed to provide broad exposure to the Style Box - Large Cap Growth category of the market, the Invesco Bloomberg Pricing Power ETF (POWA) is a smart beta exchange traded fund launched on 12/15/2006.
What Are Smart Beta ETFs?
The ETF industry has traditionally been dominated by products based on market capitalization weighted indexes that are designed to represent the market or a particular segment of the market.
A good option for investors who believe in market efficiency, market cap weighted indexes offer a low-cost, convenient, and transparent way of replicating market returns.
On the other hand, some investors who believe that it is possible to beat the market by superior stock selection opt to invest in another class of funds that track non-cap weighted strategies--popularly known as smart beta.
Based on specific fundamental characteristics, or a combination of such, these indexes attempt to pick stocks that have a better chance of risk-return performance.
Methodologies like equal-weighting, one of the simplest options out there, fundamental weighting, and volatility/momentum based weighting are all choices offered to investors in this space, but not all of them can deliver superior returns.
Fund Sponsor & Index
Managed by Invesco, POWA has amassed assets over $201.98 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs in the Style Box - Large Cap Growth. Before fees and expenses, POWA seeks to match the performance of the BLOOMBERG PRICING POWER INDEX .
The Bloomberg Pricing Power Index composes of U.S. large and mid-capitalization companies that are well-positioned to maintain stable profit margins in all market conditions while focusing on companies that have the smallest deviations among their annual gross profit margins over the last five years.
Cost & Other Expenses
Expense ratios are an important factor in the return of an ETF and in the long-term, cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive cousins, other things remaining the same.
Annual operating expenses for POWA are 0.40%, which makes it on par with most peer products in the space.
The fund has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 1.40%.
Sector Exposure and Top Holdings
Most ETFs are very transparent products, and disclose their holdings on a daily basis. ETFs also offer diversified exposure, which minimizes single stock risk, though it's still important for investors to research a fund's holdings.
POWA's heaviest allocation is in the Industrials sector, which is about 29.40% of the portfolio. Its Healthcare and Information Technology round out the top three.
When you look at individual holdings, Iron Mountain Inc (IRM) accounts for about 2.60% of the fund's total assets, followed by Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT) and Best Buy Co Inc (BBY).
POWA's top 10 holdings account for about 22.4% of its total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
So far this year, POWA has gained about 13.94%, and was up about 24.16% in the last one year (as of 09/13/2024). During this past 52-week period, the fund has traded between $63.22 and $83.14.
POWA has a beta of 0.86 and standard deviation of 11.20% for the trailing three-year period. With about 50 holdings, it has more concentrated exposure than peers.
Alternatives
Invesco Bloomberg Pricing Power ETF is an excellent option for investors seeking to outperform the Style Box - Large Cap Growth segment of the market. There are other ETFs in the space which investors could consider as well.
Vanguard Growth ETF (VUG) tracks CRSP U.S. Large Cap Growth Index and the Invesco QQQ (QQQ) tracks NASDAQ-100 Index. Vanguard Growth ETF has $136.02 billion in assets, Invesco QQQ has $283.80 billion. VUG has an expense ratio of 0.04% and QQQ charges 0.20%.
Investors looking for cheaper and lower-risk options should consider traditional market cap weighted ETFs that aim to match the returns of the Style Box - Large Cap Growth.
Bottom Line
To learn more about this product and other ETFs, screen for products that match your investment objectives and read articles on latest developments in the ETF investing universe, please visit Zacks ETF Center.
Zacks Investment Research
Launched on 09/29/2015, the JPMorgan Diversified Return U.S. Equity ETF (JPUS) is a passively managed exchange traded fund designed to provide a broad exposure to the Large Cap Blend segment of the US equity market.
The fund is sponsored by J.P. Morgan. It has amassed assets over $427.76 million, making it one of the average sized ETFs attempting to match the Large Cap Blend segment of the US equity market.
Why Large Cap Blend
Companies that fall in the large cap category tend to have a market capitalization above $10 billion. Considered a more stable option, large cap companies boast more predictable cash flows and are less volatile than their mid and small cap counterparts.
Typically holding a combination of both growth and value stocks, blend ETFs also demonstrate qualities seen in value and growth investments.
Costs
When considering an ETF's total return, expense ratios are an important factor, and cheaper funds can significantly outperform their more expensive counterparts in the long term if all other factors remain equal.
Annual operating expenses for this ETF are 0.18%, putting it on par with most peer products in the space.
It has a 12-month trailing dividend yield of 2.07%.
Sector Exposure and Top Holdings
ETFs offer a diversified exposure and thus minimize single stock risk but it is still important to delve into a fund's holdings before investing. Most ETFs are very transparent products and many disclose their holdings on a daily basis.
This ETF has heaviest allocation to the Consumer Staples sector--about 14.60% of the portfolio. Healthcare and Real Estate round out the top three.
Looking at individual holdings, Kellanova Common Stock (K) accounts for about 0.50% of total assets, followed by First Citizens (FCNCA) and Iron Mountain Inc Reit (IRM).
The top 10 holdings account for about 4.48% of total assets under management.
Performance and Risk
JPUS seeks to match the performance of the Russell 1000 Diversified Factor Index before fees and expenses. The JP Morgan Diversified Factor US Equity Index utilizes a rules-based approach combining risk-weighted portfolio construction with multi-factor security screening based on value, quality and momentum factors.
The ETF has added about 13.44% so far this year and it's up approximately 21.06% in the last one year (as of 09/10/2024). In the past 52-week period, it has traded between $89.72 and $117.97.
The ETF has a beta of 0.96 and standard deviation of 15.29% for the trailing three-year period, making it a medium risk choice in the space. With about 370 holdings, it effectively diversifies company-specific risk.
Alternatives
JPMorgan Diversified Return U.S. Equity ETF carries a Zacks ETF Rank of 3 (Hold), which is based on expected asset class return, expense ratio, and momentum, among other factors. Thus, JPUS is a good option for those seeking exposure to the Style Box - Large Cap Blend area of the market. Investors might also want to consider some other ETF options in the space.
The iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV) and the SPDR S&P 500 ETF (SPY) track a similar index. While iShares Core S&P 500 ETF has $506.52 billion in assets, SPDR S&P 500 ETF has $547.40 billion. IVV has an expense ratio of 0.03% and SPY charges 0.09%.
Bottom-Line
While an excellent vehicle for long term investors, passively managed ETFs are a popular choice among institutional and retail investors due to their low costs, transparency, flexibility, and tax efficiency.
To learn more about this product and other ETFs, screen for products that match your investment objectives and read articles on latest developments in the ETF investing universe, please visit Zacks ETF Center.
Zacks Investment Research
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