Iron Mountain (NYSE:IRM) didn't quite end its 2024 on a high note, at least as far as its fundamentals were concerned. Thursday morning, the company released its fourth-quarter and full-year 2024 results, and investors weren't all that pleased with them. They sold out of the company fairly aggressively, leaving its share price with a more than 7% loss on the day.
Falling short on the Mountain
Iron Mountain, which specializes in the handling of documents and records, booked revenue of $1.58 billion for the quarter. This not only represented an 11% year-over-year increase, but it notched a new all-time quarterly record for the company.
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As for the bottom line, Iron Mountain flipped to a net profit of nearly $106 million from the year-ago deficit of almost $34 million. In non-GAAP (adjusted) and per-share terms, the company netted $0.50.
Despite the meaty improvements, both headline metrics whiffed (if only slightly) on the consensus analyst estimates. These called for revenue of $1.6 billion and adjusted earnings of $0.51 per share.
In the earnings release, Iron Mountain quoted its CEO William Meaney as saying that the quarter featured "strength across each of our business segments." There are two: Storage rental improved by 8% to bring in $942 million, while service revenue rose by 17% to $639 million.
Expecting continued growth
Iron Mountain issued guidance for the entirety of 2025. It forecast that its revenue would land at $6.65 billion to $6.80 billion, which at the midpoint would shake out into growth of around 9% over the 2024 tally. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) should improve to nearly $2.48 billion to $2.53 billion; at the midpoint, this would be roughly 12% growth.
Oftentimes, companies are punished for even slightly missing analyst projections. I think that's the case here, as Iron Mountain's growth was actually quite impressive, and its guidance is encouraging.
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Eric Volkman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Iron Mountain. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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