Contrasting Iron Mountain (NYSE:IRM) and Four Corners Property Trust (NYSE:FCPT)

Four Corners Property Trust (NYSE:FCPT) and Iron Mountain (NYSE:IRM) are both real estate companies, but which is the better investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, profitability, valuation, dividends and risk.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

98.7% of Four Corners Property Trust shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.1% of Iron Mountain shares are owned by institutional investors. 1.2% of Four Corners Property Trust shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.7% of Iron Mountain shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Four Corners Property Trust and Iron Mountain’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Four Corners Property Trust	38.70%	7.35%	4.05%
Iron Mountain	5.54%	-85.44%	3.30%

Dividends

Four Corners Property Trust pays an annual dividend of $1.47 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.7%. Iron Mountain pays an annual dividend of $3.46 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. Four Corners Property Trust pays out 132.4% 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 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. Four Corners Property Trust has raised its dividend for 5 consecutive years and Iron Mountain has raised its dividend for 3 consecutive years. Four Corners Property Trust is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for Four Corners Property Trust and Iron Mountain, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Four Corners Property Trust	0	5	5	0	2.50
Iron Mountain	0	2	5	0	2.71

Four Corners Property Trust currently has a consensus target price of $27.90, suggesting a potential upside of 28.06%. Iron Mountain has a consensus target price of $139.83, suggesting a potential upside of 25.82%. Given Four Corners Property Trust’s higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Four Corners Property Trust is more favorable than Iron Mountain.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares Four Corners Property Trust and Iron Mountain”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Four Corners Property Trust	$294.13 million	8.13	$112.36 million	$1.11	19.63
Iron Mountain	$6.90 billion	4.79	$144.59 million	$1.40	79.39

Iron Mountain has higher revenue and earnings than Four Corners Property Trust. Four Corners Property Trust is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Iron Mountain, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Volatility & Risk

Four Corners Property Trust has a beta of 0.79, suggesting that its stock price is 21% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Iron Mountain has a beta of 1.18, suggesting that its stock price is 18% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

Four Corners Property Trust beats Iron Mountain on 9 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Four Corners Property Trust

Four Corners Property Trust, Inc. engages in the owning, acquisition, and leasing of properties for use in the restaurant and food-service related industries. It operates through the Real Estate Operations and Restaurant Operations segments. The Real Estate Operations segment consists of rental revenues generated by leasing restaurant properties. The Restaurant Operations segment includes the Kerrow Restaurant operating business. The company was founded on July 2, 2015 and is headquartered in Mill Valley, CA.

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.