Head-To-Head Survey: Iron Mountain (NYSE:IRM) versus Saul Centers (NYSE:BFS)

Iron Mountain (NYSE:IRM) and Saul Centers (NYSE:BFS) are both business services companies, but which is the better stock? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, profitability, risk and dividends.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Iron Mountain and Saul Centers”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Iron Mountain	$5.48 billion	5.51	$184.23 million	$0.36	285.70
Saul Centers	$257.21 million	3.46	$52.69 million	$1.84	20.02

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

Risk & Volatility

Iron Mountain has a beta of 1.01, meaning that its stock price is 1% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Saul Centers has a beta of 1.11, meaning that its stock price is 11% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

80.1% of Iron Mountain shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 50.0% of Saul Centers shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.1% of Iron Mountain shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 56.6% of Saul Centers 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.

Profitability

This table compares Iron Mountain and Saul Centers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Iron Mountain	1.77%	-44,660.04%	2.94%
Saul Centers	20.84%	17.16%	2.72%

Dividends

Iron Mountain pays an annual dividend of $2.86 per share and has a dividend yield of 2.8%. Saul Centers pays an annual dividend of $2.36 per share and has a dividend yield of 6.4%. Iron Mountain pays out 794.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Saul Centers pays out 128.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Saul Centers is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Iron Mountain and Saul Centers, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Iron Mountain	0	0	6	1	3.14
Saul Centers	0	0	1	0	3.00

Iron Mountain currently has a consensus target price of $129.17, suggesting a potential upside of 25.59%. Saul Centers has a consensus target price of $45.50, suggesting a potential upside of 23.51%. Given Iron Mountain’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities analysts clearly believe Iron Mountain is more favorable than Saul Centers.

Summary

Iron Mountain beats Saul Centers on 10 of the 17 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 Saul Centers

Saul Centers is a self-managed, self-administered equity REIT headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland. Saul Centers currently operates and manages a real estate portfolio comprised of 61 properties that includes (a) 57 community and neighborhood Shopping Centers and Mixed-Use properties with approximately 9.8 million square feet of leasable area and (b) four land and development properties. Over 85% of the Company’s property operating income is generated from properties in the metropolitan Washington, DC/Baltimore area.