Analysts Maintain Confidence in Iron Mountain’s Strategic Shift

Iron Mountain US46284V1017

Despite a significant share price decline in recent months, prominent market researchers continue to express a favorable outlook for Iron Mountain. The specialized REIT, which is transitioning from traditional document storage to modern data centers, remains in focus, particularly following a recent stock registration related to employee compensation.

The core of the analysts' optimism lies in Iron Mountain's strategic repositioning. The company is capitalizing on the substantial infrastructure demands driven by artificial intelligence. Once primarily known for archiving paper documents, it is now rapidly expanding its high-performance data center business. This industry trend is exemplified by recent developments such as the gigawatt-scale data center partnership between Google and NextEra Energy.

Recent quarterly results reinforce this transformation narrative. For the third quarter of 2025, revenue increased by 12.7% to $1.75 billion, with earnings per share surpassing expectations.

Firm Recommendations Amid Price Target Adjustments

Leading institutions have recently reaffirmed their constructive stance. On Wednesday, December 17, investment bank Wells Fargo reiterated its Overweight rating on Iron Mountain, assigning a price target of $125. This implies a potential upside of more than 50% from current trading levels. Just one day prior, Jefferies adjusted its price target downward from $120 to $109 but maintained its "Buy" recommendation. These actions signal that analysts believe in the company's long-term strategy, even as they acknowledge short-term valuation concerns.

Employee Share Registration and Forward Challenges

Parallel to these analyst commentaries, the company registered an additional 4.6 million shares for its employee equity program on December 15. While such registrations are standard procedure, investors routinely monitor them for potential dilution effects.

Iron Mountain shares are currently trading near their 52-week low, having lost over 30% of their value since the start of the year. The critical challenge for the upcoming first quarter of 2026 will be whether management can successfully balance its capital-intensive investments in data centers, maintain its attractive dividend yield of approximately 4.3%, and manage share dilution. The next dividend payment is scheduled for January 6, 2026.