April 30 (Reuters) – Iron Mountain raised its annual forecast on Thursday, as companies increasingly rely on its data centers to meet growing demand for artificial intelligence capabilities.
Demand for computing power needed to train AI models and run applications such as ChatGPT has driven a data center boom, expanding the market for companies such as Iron Mountain that lease such spaces.
• Iron Mountain, which operates as a real estate investment trust, reported adjusted funds from operations (AFFO) of $1.43 per share for the first quarter, above analysts’ estimates of $1.26 according to data compiled by LSEG.
• The company is also benefiting from stable cash flows from its core storage and records management business, which has a large and diversified customer base including Boeing, Akamai Technologies and Coca-Cola.
• It now expects full-year revenue between $7.83 billion and $7.93 billion, compared with estimates of $7.74 billion. The company’s previous forecast was between $7.63 billion and $7.78 billion.
• The annual AFFO is expected between $5.79 and $5.86 per share, compared with estimates of $4.68 per share. The prior expectation was between $5.69 and $5.79
• “Looking ahead, we are accelerating our cross-selling efforts in ALM and Digital and we are off to a strong start to the year in data center leasing, where we have already leased 32 megawatts through April,” President and CEO, William Meaney said.
• Iron Mountain posted first-quarter revenue of $1.94 billion, compared with estimates of $1.86 billion.
• Additionally, the company’s board also declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.864 per share of common stock on Thursday.
(Reporting by Arunesh Sinha)
