Stock Traders Buy High Volume of Put Options on Iron Mountain (NYSE:IRM)

Iron Mountain Incorporated (NYSE:IRM) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Monday. Traders acquired 14,527 put options on the stock. This is an increase of 504% compared to the average daily volume of 2,407 put options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Iron Mountain news, EVP Mithu Bhargava sold 8,263 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $104.49, for a total value of $863,400.87. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 13,054 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,364,012.46. This trade represents a 38.76 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO William L. Meaney sold 15,872 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $112.99, for a total transaction of $1,793,377.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 162,391 shares of company stock valued at $16,805,912 over the last three months. Insiders own 2.10% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Iron Mountain

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Iron Mountain by 1.6% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,257,965 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $978,479,000 after acquiring an additional 128,622 shares during the period. Wealthfront Advisers LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Iron Mountain by 9,843.3% during the 4th quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC now owns 6,864,832 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $721,562,000 after buying an additional 6,795,792 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of Iron Mountain by 56.1% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 4,326,476 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $454,756,000 after buying an additional 1,554,746 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Iron Mountain by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,219,263 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $443,476,000 after acquiring an additional 15,097 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Iron Mountain by 2.7% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 3,478,790 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $365,656,000 after acquiring an additional 92,475 shares during the last quarter. 80.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Iron Mountain Price Performance

NYSE IRM traded down $0.30 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $91.48. 1,125,466 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,098,954. Iron Mountain has a 52-week low of $73.45 and a 52-week high of $130.24. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $103.50 and a 200 day simple moving average of $112.39. The firm has a market cap of $26.87 billion, a PE ratio of 149.97, a PEG ratio of 5.15 and a beta of 1.01.

Iron Mountain (NYSE:IRM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 13th. The financial services provider reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.20 by ($0.70). Iron Mountain had a negative return on equity of 401.83% and a net margin of 2.95%. The company had revenue of $1.58 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.60 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.52 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Iron Mountain will post 4.54 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Iron Mountain Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 4th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 17th will be given a $0.785 dividend. This represents a $3.14 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.43%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 17th. This is a positive change from Iron Mountain’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. Iron Mountain’s payout ratio is currently 468.85%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Barclays dropped their price objective on Iron Mountain from $131.00 to $130.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Iron Mountain to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 6th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Iron Mountain from $135.00 to $125.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of Iron Mountain from $135.00 to $139.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Iron Mountain from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $127.67.

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.