Financial Contrast: American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE:AMH) vs. Iron Mountain (NYSE:IRM)

American Homes 4 Rent (NYSE:AMH) and Iron Mountain (NYSE:IRM) are both large-cap finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, earnings, valuation, institutional ownership, risk, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares American Homes 4 Rent and Iron Mountain”s top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
American Homes 4 Rent	$1.76 billion	7.75	$412.43 million	$1.08	34.20
Iron Mountain	$6.27 billion	4.76	$180.16 million	$0.41	246.40

American Homes 4 Rent has higher earnings, but lower revenue than Iron Mountain. American Homes 4 Rent 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

American Homes 4 Rent pays an annual dividend of $1.20 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.2%. Iron Mountain pays an annual dividend of $3.14 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.1%. American Homes 4 Rent pays out 111.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. Iron Mountain pays out 765.9% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. American Homes 4 Rent has increased its dividend for 5 consecutive years and Iron Mountain has increased its dividend for 3 consecutive years. American Homes 4 Rent is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.

Profitability

This table compares American Homes 4 Rent and Iron Mountain’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
American Homes 4 Rent	23.86%	5.33%	3.15%
Iron Mountain	2.95%	-401.83%	2.87%

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and recommmendations for American Homes 4 Rent and Iron Mountain, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
American Homes 4 Rent	0	7	8	0	2.53
Iron Mountain	0	0	7	1	3.13

American Homes 4 Rent presently has a consensus price target of $40.90, suggesting a potential upside of 10.74%. Iron Mountain has a consensus price target of $121.71, suggesting a potential upside of 20.48%. Given Iron Mountain’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe Iron Mountain is more favorable than American Homes 4 Rent.

Insider and Institutional Ownership

91.9% of American Homes 4 Rent shares are held by institutional investors. Comparatively, 80.1% of Iron Mountain shares are held by institutional investors. 6.3% of American Homes 4 Rent shares are held by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.9% of Iron Mountain shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Risk and Volatility

American Homes 4 Rent has a beta of 0.76, indicating that its share price is 24% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Iron Mountain has a beta of 1.09, indicating that its share price is 9% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Summary

American Homes 4 Rent beats Iron Mountain on 12 of the 18 factors compared between the two stocks.

About American Homes 4 Rent

American Homes 4 Rent operates as a real estate investment trust. It engages in the acquisition, renovation, leasing, and operating of single-family homes as rental properties. The company was founded by Bradley Wayne Hughes, Sr. on October 19, 2012 and is headquartered in Las Vegas, NV.

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.