Iron Mountain logo Key Points Iron Mountain delivered a record Q1 with $1.94B revenue, $708M adjusted EBITDA and $426M AFFO, up about 22% year‑over‑year and 17% organic — the highest organic growth rate in over 25 years — driven by strength in data centers, ALM and digital solutions. The company raised full‑year 2026 guidance to…
Iron Mountain delivered a record Q1 with $1.94B revenue, $708M adjusted EBITDA and $426M AFFO, up about 22% year‑over‑year and 17% organic — the highest organic growth rate in over 25 years — driven by strength in data centers, ALM and digital solutions.
The company raised full‑year 2026 guidance to $7.825B–$7.925B revenue and $1.735B–$1.755B AFFO (or $5.79–$5.86 per share), with $100M of the upgrade attributed to ALM and net lease‑adjusted leverage improving to 4.8x.
Segment momentum was pronounced: Data centers revenue jumped 47% to $255M with strong leasing activity, ALM revenue rose 92% to $232M (77% organic), and Global RIM posted a quarterly record of $1.4B revenue.
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Iron Mountain (NYSE:IRM) reported record first-quarter 2026 results and raised its full-year outlook after posting 22% year-over-year growth in revenue, adjusted EBITDA, and adjusted funds from operations (AFFO). Management credited broad-based strength across the business, led by growth in data centers, Asset Lifecycle Management (ALM), and digital solutions, alongside improved performance in the company’s core physical records storage operations.
Record quarter driven by growth businesses and organic momentum
President and CEO Bill Meaney said the company “is off to an incredibly strong start to 2026,” with first-quarter results coming in “above our expectations.” Meaney highlighted 17% organic growth, which he said was “the highest rate we’ve achieved in more than 25 years.”
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Meaney said Iron Mountain’s “growth business of data center, ALM, and digital… grew more than 50% in the quarter and now exceed more than 30% of our total revenue.” He also noted that the physical records storage business “delivered its best quarterly growth in years” and remains on track for what would be its “38th consecutive year of organic storage rental growth.”
Executive Vice President and CFO Barry Hytinen said revenue totaled $1.94 billion, up $344 million year-over-year and “well ahead of the projection we provided on our last call.” Revenue grew 22% on a reported basis, 19% on a constant-currency basis, and 17% organically. Hytinen said foreign exchange contributed about $40 million of year-over-year revenue, though he noted the dollar strengthened after the last call and the FX impact was “slightly below what we had assumed.”
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Hytinen attributed roughly $80 million of first-quarter revenue upside versus expectations to outperformance in ALM, records management, and data centers. Total storage revenue was $1.1 billion, up 15%, while total service revenue rose 31% to $841 million.
Adjusted EBITDA came in at $708 million, up 22% year-over-year and $23 million above the company’s prior projection. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 36.6%, up 20 basis points year-over-year. AFFO was $426 million, up 22%, and AFFO per share was $1.43, which Hytinen said was $0.04 ahead of the prior projection.
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Operating cash flow was $339 million, up $141 million from last year, which Hytinen described as “the best first quarter operating cash flow the company has ever achieved.”
Segment highlights: RIM, data centers, and ALM
Global RIM (records management): Revenue of $1.4 billion was a quarterly record, up 12% reported and supported by 8% organic growth. Storage revenue grew 9% reported and 6% organically, while service revenue grew “over 16%” with organic growth “in excess of 12%,” driven by core services and the “fast-growing digital business,” according to Hytinen. Segment adjusted EBITDA rose to $618 million, up 11%, with a 44% margin.
Data centers: Revenue of $255 million increased 47% year-over-year, driven by lease commencements, pricing, and customers “ramping power faster than we expected,” Hytinen said. The company signed 22 MW of new leases, commenced 24 MW, and renewed 193 leases totaling 7 MW. Renewal pricing spreads were 12% cash and 14% GAAP. Data center adjusted EBITDA was $133 million, up $42 million, with a 52.1% margin (down 30 basis points year-over-year). Hytinen said that, excluding pass-through power, margin was up 120 basis points.
Asset Lifecycle Management (ALM): Revenue of $232 million rose 92% year-over-year, including 77% organic growth. Hytinen said growth included “greater than 100% organic growth” in data center decommissioning and “more than 45% organic growth” in the enterprise channel. Acquisitions Premier Surplus and ACT Logistics contributed $17 million of revenue in the quarter.
Commercial wins: government momentum, digital and cross-selling
Meaney emphasized progress in cross-selling and said bookings were strong across the company, including in the public sector, where first-quarter bookings were “our second best in our company’s history.” He pointed to wins that combined digitization with physical storage and other specialized services.
Meaney also highlighted the achievement of FedRAMP High authorization for Iron Mountain’s InSight digital services suite, calling it a development that will “fundamentally shift our competitive stance” in the U.S. public sector.
In Global RIM, Meaney cited a Canadian insurance customer deploying Smart Reveal to process “more than 1 million files” stored with Iron Mountain and a global law firm deploying Smart Sort across six U.S. locations to process “more than 2 million files” while adding “60,000 cubic feet” of physical storage.
In digital solutions, Meaney said the company posted record first-quarter revenue with growth “greater than 20% year-over-year,” and continued to win contracts for its AI-powered DXP platform. He said Iron Mountain won another Google Partner of the Year award for media and entertainment. Meaney described a multi-year agreement with a Brazilian clinical diagnostics firm in which DXP will process “over 20 million medical records,” as well as a U.S. healthcare center contract spanning Smart Sort for “more than 600,000 medical records” and digital solutions for “nearly 12 million images.”
In data centers, Meaney said the company leased its “entire 16 MW Miami site” to an existing ALM decommissioning customer under a 10-year agreement, and leased “approximately 6 MW” to enterprise customers in the quarter. He added that in April the company leased 10 MW in Amsterdam to a “major global cloud player” that is new to Iron Mountain’s portfolio.
Guidance raised; ALM outlook increased; capital allocation and leverage
Following the first-quarter beat, Hytinen raised full-year 2026 guidance. The company now expects:
Revenue:$7.825 billion to $7.925 billion (14% growth at the midpoint), up $175 million at the midpoint versus prior guidance. Hytinen said the increase is not driven by FX, as the company used the same FX rates as before.
Adjusted EBITDA:$2.925 billion to $2.965 billion (14% growth at the midpoint), up $45 million at the midpoint.
AFFO:$1.735 billion to $1.755 billion, or $5.79 to $5.86 per share, which would be 13% growth at the midpoint and an increase of $25 million and $0.09 per share versus prior guidance.
Hytinen said $100 million of the revenue guidance increase is attributable to ALM. He raised the company’s full-year ALM revenue outlook to $950 million, which he said is $100 million above the prior expectation. He added that memory pricing rose during the quarter, moderated in late March and early April, and “over the last few weeks they have stabilized,” with pricing “in line with our original guidance and meaningfully above last year.”
For the second quarter, the company forecast revenue of approximately $1.965 billion, adjusted EBITDA of approximately $715 million, and AFFO of approximately $418 million, or $1.40 per share.
On capital allocation, Hytinen said the board declared a quarterly dividend of $0.864 per share to be paid in early July, and noted a trailing four-quarter payout ratio of 61%, “in line with our target ratio of low 60s%.” First-quarter investments included $492 million of growth CapEx and $35 million of recurring CapEx, and the company continued to expect full-year CapEx to be “slightly down from last year.”
Responding to a question on whether data center growth is constrained by capital plans, Meaney said the company does not have “any constraint on capital” for data center growth. He added that, based on year-to-date leasing and “advanced discussions” across a pipeline supported by “400 MW… energized over the next 24 months,” Iron Mountain expects to be “meaningfully above the 100 MW guidance” for data center leasing in 2026, while noting that hyperscale contracts can be “lumpy.”
Hytinen said net lease-adjusted leverage ended the quarter at 4.8x, down slightly from the prior quarter and the best level for the company on that metric since before its 2014 reconversion.
About Iron Mountain (NYSE:IRM)
Iron Mountain Incorporated is a global information management company that helps organizations protect, store, and manage their physical and digital information. The firm provides a range of services including secure records storage, document imaging and digitization, secure shredding and destruction, and information governance solutions designed to support regulatory compliance and business continuity. Iron Mountain also offers specialized secure storage environments and logistics for sensitive assets such as art, medical records, and legal archives.
Beyond traditional records management, Iron Mountain has expanded into technology-driven services to support customers’ digital transformation.
The article “Iron Mountain Q1 Earnings Call Highlights” was originally published by MarketBeat.
