tapebrief
IRM · Q3 2025
Preliminary brief— based on press release only. Full analysis including management tone and Q&A will be added when the transcript is available.

IRM · Q4 2025 Earnings

Iron Mountain

Reported February 12, 2026

30-second summary

Revenue grew 16.6% YoY to $1.843B in Q4 FY2025, beating the ~$1.8B Q4 guide, with adjusted EBITDA of $705.3M (margin 38.3%, +70bps QoQ, flat YoY) and AFFO/share of $1.44 above the ~$1.39 guide. FY2025 closed at $6.902B revenue (+12.2%, +10.2% organic), landing at the upper end of the raised range, and management initiated FY2026 guidance of $7.625–$7.775B revenue (+12% YoY) and $2.875–$2.925B adjusted EBITDA (+13%) — a guide that materially exceeds the 2022-vintage long-term targets ($7.3B / $2.5B) at constant FX. The headline forward signal: >25% data center revenue growth in 2026 reaffirmed, 2027 pre-committed at 20%+, ALM guided to $850M (+35%), and Q4 new lease signings stepped up to 43MW (from 13.5MW in Q3).

Headline numbers

EPS

Q4 FY2025

$0.61

Revenue

Q4 FY2025

$1.84B

+16.6% YoY

Operating margin

Q4 FY2025

18.5%

Key financials

Q4 FY2025
MetricQ4 FY2025YoYQ3 FY2025QoQ
Revenue$1.84B+16.6%$1.75B+5.1%
EPS$0.61—$0.54+13.0%
Operating margin18.5%—17.6%+90bps

Guidance

Guidance is issued for the full year only, refreshed each quarter. Prior and new below are the same FY updated this quarter.

Actuals vs prior guidance

MetricPeriodPrior guideActualΔResult
RevenueQ4 FY2025~$1,800 million$1,843 million+$43 million above guideBeat
Adjusted EBITDAQ4 FY2025~$690 million$705.3 million+$15.3 million above guideMet
AFFOQ4 FY2025~$415 millionNot disclosed—Met
AFFO Per ShareQ4 FY2025~$1.39$1.44+$0.05 above guideMet

New guidance

MetricPeriodGuideYoY
RevenueFY2026$7,625 - $7,775 billion+12%
Adjusted EBITDAFY2026$2,875 - $2,925 billion+13%
AFFOFY2026$1,705 - $1,735 billion+12%
AFFO Per ShareFY2026$5.69 - $5.79+11%
RevenueQ1 FY2026approximately $1,855 million+16%
Adjusted EBITDAQ1 FY2026approximately $685 million+18%
AFFOQ1 FY2026approximately $415 million+19%
AFFO Per ShareQ1 FY2026approximately $1.39+19%

Changes to prior guidance

MetricPeriodPrior guideNew guideΔResult
Revenue
FY2025
$6,790 - $6,940 billion$6.902 billion—Raised

Segment KPIs

Q4 FY2025
SegmentQ4 FY2025YoY
Global RIM Business$1.373B+9.1%
Global Data Center Business$0.237B+39.1%
Storage Rental$1.061B+12.7%
Service$0.782B+22.3%

Other KPIs

Q4 FY2025
SegmentQ4 FY2025
Adjusted EBITDA$705.3M
Adjusted EBITDA Margin38.3%
AFFO per share$1.44
Storage Facility Capacity Utilization81.3%
Records Management Retention Rate93.3%
Data Center Leasable Megawatts488.2 MW
Data Center Leased % - Total96.9%
Organic Revenue Growth13.6%

Management tone

Q1 → "Sustaining double-digit growth" thesis (Q2) → "Sustaining is operational reality, 2026 pre-leased" (Q3) → "Materially above the 2022 long-term targets, 2027 pre-committed" (Q4 FY2025)

Growth horizon extended from 2026 to 2027 with explicit numbers. Q3 FY2025 hardened the 2026 data center >25% commitment to signed-leases basis; this quarter management pre-committed to "20% plus growth in 2027 for data center" and grounded it in "our land bank which includes 400 megawatts of available capacity that is expected to energize over the next 24 months." A year ago 2026 was a thesis; this quarter 2027 is a number. That is a fundamentally different posture for a company whose visibility window has historically extended one fiscal year.

Long-term targets reframed from aspirational to materially exceeded. Management directly contrasted the FY2026 guide against the 2022-vintage 2026 targets — "our 2026 guidance for revenue and adjusted EBITDA is approximately $8.1 billion and $3.0 billion respectively" versus the original $7.3B and $2.5B at like-for-like FX. Q2 and Q3 FY2025 made the "double-digit for the foreseeable future" claim qualitatively; this quarter management put the receipt on the table. The signal: management is now willing to be measured against its own four-year-old commitments precisely because they have been cleared.

ALM moved from "multi-billion dollar future" to "multi-billion dollar future with the 2026 step quantified." Q4 FY2025 ALM revenue was $190M (+70% reported, +56% organic), and management put a $850M FY2026 number on it (+35% YoY), reaffirmed the multi-billion-dollar destination, and importantly noted balanced hyperscale/enterprise growth with strong pricing — addressing the memory-component volatility risk vector that was the central ALM caveat in Q3 FY2025. The framing: "ALM revenue increased 63% in total in 2025, including 40% on an organic basis…we are focused on capitalizing on the large opportunities in the ALM market, and we expect this to be a multi-billion dollar business for Iron Mountain in the future."

Whitespace quantified into the explicit thesis. A new sharpening this quarter: "only 5% of our customers currently buying from more than one of our business units." Combined with the "$170 billion total addressable market" framing, management is now anchoring the bull case on penetration math rather than growth-rate extrapolation. That is a more defensible long-cycle argument than "we expect to continue growing," and it explains why guidance now extends to 2027.

Physical storage reframed from "stable foundation" to "active growth lever." Storage rental accelerated to +12.7% YoY in Q4 FY2025 from +10.4% in Q3 FY2025 and management spent prepared remarks reasserting the legacy business — "37 consecutive years of organic storage growth" and "we remain totally committed to growing this business through our innovation around how we help our customers get more value from the information we store on their behalf, as well as our revenue management strategy." The subtext: with growth businesses now ~30% of revenue, management wants the market to remember the other 70% is also compounding.

Recurring themes management leaned on this quarter:

Hyperscaler-driven data center acceleration with 400MW energization pipeline over 24 monthsALM scale-up to multi-billion dollar business with balanced hyperscale/enterprise growth and strong pricingCross-selling momentum—only 5% customer overlap indicates massive penetration runwayDigital solutions (DXP) gaining traction with record deal volume and 2x average deal value YoY37 consecutive years of organic storage growth; physical business remains resilient foundationEBITDA margin expansion through operational leverage and services margin improvement across all segments

Risks management surfaced:

FX headwinds (though modest benefit expected in 2026 at ~$75M)Data center project execution risk (mitigated by pre-leasing discipline before construction)ALM memory pricing volatility (currently benefiting but assumed to normalize in guidance)Department of Treasury contract ramp execution and complexityM&A integration and timing uncertainty in ALM market consolidation

Answers to last quarter's watch list

Q4 FY2025 revenue landing at or above the ~$1.8B (+14% reported) guide. Resolved cleanly above guide. Revenue printed $1.843B (+16.6% YoY) versus ~$1.8B (+14%), a $43M dollar beat and +260bps above on YoY growth. FY2025 closed at $6.902B, landing in the upper half of the $6.79B–$6.94B range. EBITDA ($705.3M vs. ~$690M) and AFFO/share ($1.44 vs. ~$1.39) also beat.
Resolved positively
Initial FY2026 guidance shape. Resolved with specifics that exceed the implied bar. FY2026 revenue guide of $7.625B–$7.775B (~12% YoY) clears the $7.5B+ threshold flagged last quarter; adjusted EBITDA at $2.875B–$2.925B (+13%) implies modest margin expansion; AFFO/share at $5.69–$5.79 (+11%). Data center >25% growth reaffirmed AND extended to 20%+ in 2027. The "double-digit for the foreseeable future" framing was renewed verbatim.
Resolved positively
ALM revenue trajectory and the 2026 setup. Resolved with a stronger 2026 anchor than implied. Q4 FY2025 ALM revenue was $190M (+70% reported / +56% organic); FY2025 ALM grew 63% reported / 40% organic; FY2026 guidance is now ~$850M (+35% YoY). Management explicitly addressed the volume-vs.-pricing question by noting "balanced hyperscale/enterprise growth and strong pricing," and the hedging language around memory pricing being "currently benefiting but assumed to normalize in guidance" suggests the $850M does not require continued component-pricing tailwinds.
Resolved positively
Adjusted EBITDA margin sustaining 37%+. Resolved well above bar. Q4 FY2025 margin came in at 38.3%, a +70bps QoQ step from Q3 FY2025's 37.6% and ahead of the implied ~38.3% from the prior guide. FY2026 EBITDA guide of $2.9B midpoint on $7.7B midpoint implies ~37.7% — slightly below the Q4 FY2025 exit but above the FY2025 average of 37.3%, leaving room for sequential margin expansion through the year as more data center capacity commences.
Resolved positively
Data center new lease signings cadence and 450MW energization timing. Resolved positively with a major step-up. Leasable capacity stepped from 452.2MW to 488.2MW (+36MW from Chicago commencement), and Q4 FY2025 new/expansion leases signed printed at 43.4MW — a step-change from Q3 FY2025's 13.5MW and the strongest single-quarter signing of the year. Management also pre-committed 2027 at 20%+ growth based on the 400MW energization pipeline over 24 months.
Resolved positively
Component pricing volatility in ALM. Resolved with explicit framing. Management noted ALM pricing is "currently benefiting but assumed to normalize in guidance" — i.e. the $850M FY2026 number does not extrapolate the recent memory firming. With +35% growth guided on a normalized pricing assumption, the underlying volume trajectory is the load-bearing element.
Resolved positively

What to watch into next quarter

Q1 FY2026 revenue landing at or above the ~$1.855B (+16% YoY) guide. A clean print establishes that the Q4 FY2025 acceleration was not pull-forward and that the FY2026 +12% guide has upside; a miss reopens the question of whether the $7.775B FY upper bound is the right anchor.

FY2026 data center revenue growth trajectory. With Q4 FY2025 segment growth at +39.1% and FY2026 guided at >25%, watch whether early-2026 prints suggest the segment is running above the >25% bar — and whether management refines the >25% language into a tighter range as the year progresses.

ALM Q1 FY2026 contribution against the $850M FY2026 anchor. $850M implies an average ~$212M per quarter. Watch whether Q1 FY2026 ALM tracks at or above that run rate, particularly given the "pricing normalizes" assumption — a Q1 print of $215M+ on flat-to-down component pricing would be the cleanest validation.

EBITDA margin trajectory toward the FY2026 ~37.7% midpoint. Q4 FY2025 exited at 38.3%; Q1 typically sees seasonal compression on services mix. Watch whether Q1 FY2026 prints above 37% — if so, FY2026 EBITDA likely lands above the $2.925B upper bound.

Data center new lease signings cadence in Q1 FY2026 and the 400MW energization schedule. Q4 FY2025's 43MW signing print is a high bar; watch whether Q1 FY2026 sustains a >15MW pace and what the Richmond/Northern Virginia commencement timing looks like, as that is the swing factor for FY2027 above the 20%+ floor.

Federal contract revenue ramp (IRS / Treasury). Management included $45M of Treasury revenue in the FY2026 outlook and guided "in excess of $100M annually" for 2027 and beyond. Watch whether Q1 FY2026 prints include a meaningful federal step-up and whether management revises the $45M FY2026 contribution upward as the ramp progresses.

Sources

  1. Iron Mountain Q4 2025 press release (SEC EDGAR): https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1020569/000102056926000009/q42025_final.htm
  2. Iron Mountain Q4 2025 earnings conference call — prepared remarks (transcript)

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