Iron Mountain (IRM) wrapped up 2024 on a somewhat disappointing note when it came to its core financials. On Thursday morning, the company unveiled its fourth-quarter and full-year results for 2024, and they didn’t quite win over investors. This dissatisfaction led to a significant sell-off, with the share price tumbling more than 7% by the end of the day.
## Falling short on the Mountain
Despite specializing in managing documents and records, Iron Mountain reported $1.58 billion in revenue for the quarter. While this figure marked an 11% increase from the previous year and set a new record for quarterly earnings for the company, it wasn’t enough to meet expectations.
The company managed to swing from a loss to a net profit of nearly $106 million, compared to a deficit of almost $34 million last year. On an adjusted, per-share basis, earnings came in at $0.50. However, these figures fell just short of the consensus estimates, which had pegged revenue at $1.6 billion and adjusted earnings at $0.51 per share.
In the earnings announcement, CEO William Meaney highlighted “strength across each of our business segments.” Storage rental figures saw an 8% increase, reaching $942 million, and service revenue climbed 17% to hit $639 million.
## Expecting continued growth
Looking ahead, Iron Mountain shared its projections for 2025. The company expects its revenue to reach between $6.65 billion and $6.80 billion, translating to a growth rate of around 9% over 2024’s total at the midpoint. As for adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA), it anticipates an improvement to between $2.48 billion and $2.53 billion, representing approximately 12% growth at the midpoint.
It’s not uncommon for companies to face backlash for narrowly missing analysts’ expectations. In Iron Mountain’s case, the growth it demonstrated was indeed commendable, and the positive guidance offers a promising outlook for the future.
