Iron Mountain (NYSE:IRM – Get Free Report) and Smartstop Self Storage REIT (NYSE:SMA – Get Free Report) are both real estate companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation, risk, dividends, institutional ownership and profitability.
Analyst Ratings
This is a summary of recent ratings for Iron Mountain and Smartstop Self Storage REIT, as provided by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Iron Mountain | 0 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 2.83 |
| Smartstop Self Storage REIT | 1 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2.70 |
Iron Mountain presently has a consensus price target of $135.17, suggesting a potential upside of 11.35%. Smartstop Self Storage REIT has a consensus price target of $36.47, suggesting a potential upside of 7.58%. Given Iron Mountain’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Iron Mountain is more favorable than Smartstop Self Storage REIT.
Earnings and Valuation
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Iron Mountain | $6.90 billion | 5.24 | $144.59 million | $1.40 | 86.71 |
| Smartstop Self Storage REIT | $281.14 million | 6.68 | -$1.55 million | $0.51 | 66.47 |
Iron Mountain has higher revenue and earnings than Smartstop Self Storage REIT. Smartstop Self Storage REIT is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Iron Mountain, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Dividends
Iron Mountain pays an annual dividend of $3.46 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.9%. Smartstop Self Storage REIT pays an annual dividend of $1.63 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.8%. Iron Mountain pays out 247.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Smartstop Self Storage REIT pays out 319.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Iron Mountain has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years.
Institutional & Insider Ownership
80.1% of Iron Mountain shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.7% of Iron Mountain shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 5.7% of Smartstop Self Storage REIT shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.
Volatility and Risk
Iron Mountain has a beta of 1.2, indicating that its stock price is 20% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Smartstop Self Storage REIT has a beta of 0.5, indicating that its stock price is 50% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Profitability
This table compares Iron Mountain and Smartstop Self Storage REIT’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Iron Mountain | 5.54% | -85.44% | 3.30% |
| Smartstop Self Storage REIT | 9.68% | 2.33% | 1.23% |
Summary
Iron Mountain beats Smartstop Self Storage REIT on 12 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.
About Iron Mountain
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.
About Smartstop Self Storage REIT
Symmetry Medical Inc. (Symmetry) is a medical device solutions company, including surgical instruments, orthopedic implants, and sterilization cases and trays. The Company designs, develops and offers worldwide production and supply chain capabilities for these products to customers in the orthopedic industry, and other medical device markets (including but not limited to arthroscopy, dental, laparoscopy, osteobiologic, and endoscopy segments). It also manufactures specialized non-healthcare products, primarily in the aerospace industry. The Company operates in two segments: original equipment manufacturer (OEM) solutions and symmetry surgical. On August 15, 2011, the Company acquired PSC Industries, Inc’s Olsen Medical division. On December 29, 2011 it acquired the surgical instruments product portfolio from Codman & Shurtleff, Inc., a Johnson & Johnson Company.
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