To enhance rapid growth within the data center market, Iron Mountain Incorporated IRM recently acquired two data center development sites in Virginia.

The company secured a 66-acre development site in Richmond, VA, for a new campus with more than 200 megawatts (MW) of expected capacity. This campus, to be situated at the White Oak Technology Park in Henrico County, will be ideally designed to meet the needs of highly regulated customers.

It also acquired a 40-acre development site in Manassas, VA, for two new buildings offering an estimated 150 MW capacity. This acquisition involves the planned development of an electricity substation to ensure an uninterrupted power supply for the Manassas campus.

These acquisitions, when fully developed, will bring the company's total data center capacity to more than 1.2 gigawatts (GW) on a global scale.

The acquisition of these development sites strengthens Iron Mountain's established data center footprint in Virginia. Building upon its already strong position, the company is now expanding its local capacity, which previously comprised a 142-acre campus in Manassas that offers more than 2 million square feet of energy-efficient space.

These land acquisitions have expanded Iron Mountain's global data center presence to more than 25 facilities, across three continents, offering customized, sustainable, secure, carrier and cloud-neutral colocation solutions.

Management Commentary

Per Mark Kidd, executive vice president & general manager, Asset Lifecycle Management and Data Centers of Iron Mountain, “The Commonwealth of Virginia has abundant infrastructure, a highly skilled workforce, strong fiber connectivity, and is a pro-business community - making it an ideal location to support our commitment to investing in high-growth markets that help drive our expansion strategy.”

Wrapping-Up

The demand for high-performing data centers is likely to increase in the coming years amid high growth in cloud computing, the Internet of Things (IoT), big data and elevated requirements for third-party IT infrastructure. Hence, IRM’s data center portfolio remains well-poised to capitalize on this upbeat trend, which bodes well for long-term growth.

Over the past six months, shares of this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) company have gained 40.6%, outperforming the industry’s growth of 10.7%.

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Other Stocks to Consider

Some other top-ranked stocks from the broader REIT sector are Welltower WELL and Cousins Properties CUZ, each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Welltower’s 2024 FFO per share is pinned at $4.26, suggesting year-over-year growth of 17%.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Cousins Properties’ 2024 FFO per share stands at $2.68, indicating an increase of 2.3% from the year-ago reported figure.

Note: Anything related to earnings presented in this write-up represents funds from operations (FFO), a widely used metric to gauge the performance of REITs.

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