IRM Stock: Iron Mountain Dividend, AFFO Payout and Debt (2026)

The $0.864 dividend against four per-share measures

Iron Mountain is a REIT that stores records, runs data centers and recycles corporate IT equipment, and it reports more than one “funds from operations” number. The company's own policy statement is short: “Committed to growing dividend in line with AFFO per share growth and targeting our AFFO payout ratio in the low 60s percent.” That sentence is the one to hold the filings against. The table divides the same dividend by each per-share measure in the Q2 2026 earnings release.

What closes the gap between $1.01 and $1.44 is in the AFFO reconciliation. In Q2 2026 the company added back $82.1 million of non-real-estate depreciation and $76.7 million of amortization of customer and supplier relationships, intake costs, capitalized commissions and other intangibles, and deducted only $38.0 million of recurring capital expenditures. Recurring capex was 6.4% of the $590.8 million of total growth and recurring capex in the quarter (our arithmetic), so most of what the company spends is classed as growth and sits outside AFFO. Stock-based compensation of $56.8 million is excluded from FFO (Normalized) before AFFO starts. None of this is hidden, and all of it is the company's definition, but it is why a 60% payout on AFFO and an 85% payout on FFO (Normalized) are both correct.

The dividend has stepped up each year: $0.65 a quarter declared in early 2024, $0.715 in August 2024, $0.785 from February 2025 and $0.864 from November 5, 2025, an increase of 10.1% on the last step (our arithmetic). The 2025 10-K gives declared distributions of $950.9 million for the year. Cash paid to common holders in the first half of 2026 was $532.7 million, 62.0% of the $858.8 million of AFFO (our arithmetic). No filing we read states a dividend beyond the $0.864 payable October 2, 2026.

Why the yield on the company's own table fell by a third

The supplemental report carries a capitalization table with a dated share price. The three we read show how fast the market re-rated the stock, and what a fixed $0.864 quarterly dividend did to the yield. The yields are our arithmetic, using today's dividend rate on older prices, and we do not quote a current price: check one before using them.

The price in the table rose 52.3% in six months (our arithmetic) while the dividend stayed at $0.864 and guided AFFO per share rose about 14% for the year. A payout that is a comfortable 60% of AFFO is a smaller share of what the market now pays for the same stock, which is one reason the dividend yield is no longer the case for or against owning it. Total equity is negative $955.0 million at June 30, 2026 (negative $709.3 million at year-end), which is common for a REIT that distributes most of its income and is not a signal on its own.

Leverage: 4.8x against a 4.5x to 5.5x target

Iron Mountain's headline leverage number is “net lease-adjusted leverage,” a credit-agreement measure: net debt plus six times rent expense, divided by EBITDAR, for the restricted group. The Q2 deck says leverage of 4.8x is “within 4.5x to 5.5x target range,” and the Q4 2025 deck says the company had been at about 5.0x for about two years. The table puts that number next to the ones it does not replace.

Two readings are both fair. The leverage ratio has fallen from 5.0x to 4.8x while net debt rose, because EBITDAR rose faster; the stock's rise moved net debt from 40.0% to 31.5% of enterprise value while net debt itself rose. The other reading is that the debt is large relative to what interest leaves behind: Adjusted EBITDA covers interest 3.3 times, and both ratings are below investment grade. The 10-Q says the covenants “do not contain a rating trigger,” so a rating change would not by itself be a default, but it would change what new debt costs.

One storage-growth headline, two different businesses

The supplemental report's first operating line is “organic storage rental revenue growth”: 11.3% in Q2 2026, 12.4% in Q1, and 9.2% a year earlier. It is a consolidated number. Split by segment, Global RIM (records and digital) storage rental revenue was $856.8 million, up 6.6% reported and 5.4% organically; Global Data Center storage rental revenue was $258.9 million, up 37.5% reported and 37.4% organically.

Volume was up 1.6% in a year, and 0.6% once the 7,394 thousand acquired in Q3 2025 is taken out (our arithmetic). Storage revenue per square foot was up 12.6%, and storage NOI per square foot went from $8.69 to $9.57 (up 10.1%, our arithmetic). The records business is growing by price and mix on a flat base, and the 93.4% retention rate and about 14.5 years of average storage per box are what let it do that. The risk the company itself lists is the long-standing one: “the shift from paper and tape storage to alternative technologies that require less physical space or services activity.” Of the $124.6 million increase in consolidated storage rental revenue from Q2 2025 to Q2 2026, $70.6 million came from data centers and $53.2 million from records (our arithmetic), so the number a records-only investor thinks they are buying, about 5%, is not the headline.

Revenue mix: records, data centers and asset lifecycle

Q2 2026 revenue was $2,029.1 million, up 18.5% reported and 16.8% organically. Storage rental was 55.9% of it and service 44.1% (our arithmetic). By segment:

The fastest-growing line is not a REIT asset. Asset lifecycle management (ALM) sits in Corporate and Other; the company reports its revenue up 88% reported and 82% organically in Q2. Service gross margin fell to 30.7% from 33.1% a year earlier and storage rental gross margin to 69.8% from 71.4%, and the consolidated Adjusted EBITDA margin was 35.8% against 36.7% (the data center and records segment margins are higher than the total; our reading is that the shift toward lower-margin service revenue pulls the consolidated figure down). The company says growth businesses (data center, digital, ALM) accounted for 35% of Q2 revenue, up from 28% in 2025. The 10-K says no single customer was more than “approximately 3% of revenue” in 2025 across more than 240,000 customers, and that five of the largest global hyperscalers are data center customers.

Data centers: leasing, capacity and what is still to build

Iron Mountain operated 528.5 MW of data center capacity at June 30, 2026, 97.1% leased, with 160.2 MW under construction, 684.2 MW held for development and 1,372.9 MW of total potential capacity.

Data center revenue grew 47.1% in Q1 and 38.8% in Q2 (our arithmetic), and the company says current backlog should drive growth of 25% or more in 2026 and supports another $370 million beyond 2026, before July's signings. The weighted average lease expiry is 10.2 years and 2.5% of megawatts expire in 2026, 4.2% in 2027 and 7.6% in 2028. Of the 160.2 MW under construction, 114.0 MW (71.2%) was pre-leased; total expected investment on that development is $1,449.1 million, of which $977.3 million had been spent, leaving $471.8 million (our arithmetic), and the 10-K reported $1,085.7 million of contractual construction commitments at December 31, 2025. Pre-leased deals have “10-15 year duration” according to the deck. The capex that funds this is heavy: data centers were $472.0 million of the $552.8 million of Q2 growth capex. For how the other listed data center REITs fund their pipelines, see our comparison of Equinix, Digital Realty and American Tower; Iron Mountain is the only one of the group that also sells records storage and ALM.

Where the cash comes from

The company's presentation says: “Our business generates operating cash flow approaching $2.0 billion annually that more than covers recurring capex and the dividend, with excess cash flow invested in growth.” The first-half cash flow statement shows the other half of the picture.

That is the structure in one table. Operating cash covers recurring capex and the dividend with $281.8 million to spare in six months, and growth capex of $1,044.9 million is paid for with borrowing, new notes and $95.2 million contributed by noncontrolling-interest partners. Debt principal went from $16,544.5 million to $17,482.1 million. The company says its Adjusted EBITDA growth supports “more than $2.0 billion” of growth capital financing that it describes as leverage-neutral, so the test is whether the 4.5x to 5.5x range holds as spending continues. On June 26, 2026 it sold $1,500 million of 6.250% Senior Notes due January 15, 2035 at par, with net proceeds of about $1,481.8 million used to repay part of the revolver and for general corporate purposes. On June 9 a data center subsidiary, Virginia 9, entered a credit agreement for up to $298.0 million at SOFR plus 3.00%.

Debt maturities: $2.33 billion in 2027

The 10-K maturity schedule, gross of discounts, at December 31, 2025:

2027 through 2029 is 37.0% of the total (our arithmetic). Since then the Virginia 3 data center term loans due in 2026 were repaid with a new $433.0 million loan due January 9, 2031, and the current portion of long-term debt was $220.8 million at June 30, 2026. The June 30 balance sheet lists these notes:

As an illustration only: if the $1,000 million of 4 7/8% notes due 2027 were replaced at the new 6.250% coupon, the interest bill would rise by $13.75 million a year (our arithmetic). The filings do not state a refinancing plan for those notes.

What the filings say about tax

Iron Mountain's 10-K classifies the common dividends it paid as follows: 61.1% nonqualified ordinary dividends and 38.9% return of capital for 2025; 82.6% and 17.4% for 2024; 98.2% ordinary, 0.8% qualified and 1.0% return of capital for 2023. A larger return-of-capital share lowers a holder's cost basis rather than being taxed as income in that year; our guide to REIT return of capital and the note on the Section 199A deduction explain how the lines on Form 1099-DIV are read. The 2026 split is not known until the company reports it after year-end.

What to watch before the Q3 10-Q

As of October 16, 2026, the Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2026 is not filed. Last year the Q3 10-Q and the earnings 8-K were both filed on November 5, 2025, the same day the board declared the increase to $0.864. We did not find the 2026 date in the filings we read; the company announces it separately.

• The Q3 numbers against guidance. The August 5 guidance implies about $440 million of AFFO and about $1.47 per share for Q3, and $1,760 to $1,780 million and $5.87 to $5.93 for the year, up from $1,735 to $1,755 million and $5.79 to $5.86.
• The dividend declaration. The company ties dividend growth to AFFO per share growth; guidance implies about 14% at the midpoint (our arithmetic). The last three increases were declared on August 1, 2024, February 13, 2025 and November 5, 2025, so the timing is not fixed.
• Leverage after the next quarter of capex. Net debt rose $891.4 million in six months. The question is whether 4.8x holds as growth capex continues and as new data center leases commence.
• Leasing after July. 13.1 MW in Q2 and 75 MW in July. Watch Q3 signings, churn (2.0% in Q2) and the price per kW, which was $205 in Q2.
• Records volume. Up 0.6% ex-acquisition in a year, with price carrying the growth. A fall in volume or retention below 93.4% would matter more than a slower price increase.
• 2027 maturities. $2.33 billion at year-end 2025, including the $1,000 million of 4 7/8% notes, and the data center loans due in 2027.

What a holder or reader can do with this

This page is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice. What the filings let you check yourself:

• Pick the payout measure on purpose. 60.0% of AFFO and 85.5% of FFO (Normalized) are both true. The company's target is on AFFO. If you want a stricter test, use FFO (Normalized) and recurring plus growth capex.
• Read the 4.8x with the 6.2x beside it. The first is the company's covenant-style ratio, the second is plain net debt over Adjusted EBITDA. Both moved the right way in 2026 only because earnings grew, not because debt fell.
• Split the growth. About 5% organic storage growth in records, 37% in data centers, 82% in ALM. Which of those you are paying for is a decision about the stock, not the dividend.
• Check the tax line. 38.9% return of capital in 2025 changes your basis; track it for the year you sell.
• Count what you already own. If you hold a non-traded or listed data center or storage REIT, such as those in our Public Storage and Realty Income pages, Iron Mountain is a different mix of records, data center and service income, not a duplicate.

If a large part of your income depends on this one payer, a conversation with a qualified adviser about how it fits with the rest of your holdings may be worth having.

FAQ

All figures are from Iron Mountain Incorporated (SEC CIK 1020569) filings read on EDGAR on October 16, 2026: Form 10-K for 2025 (accession 0001020569-26-000013, filed February 12, 2026); Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026 (0001020569-26-000071, filed August 5, 2026); the earnings release, presentation and supplemental financial information furnished with Forms 8-K for Q4 2025 (0001020569-26-000009), Q1 2026 (0001020569-26-000036) and Q2 2026 (0001020569-26-000068); and the Form 8-K of June 26, 2026 on the 6.250% Senior Notes due 2035 (0001104659-26-078307). Payout percentages, per-share conversions, shares of revenue and capex, growth rates computed from supplemental tables, the unadjusted leverage ratio, annualized dividend yields on the company's dated share prices, cash-flow differences and the refinancing illustration are our arithmetic from those rows; FFO, FFO (Normalized), AFFO, Adjusted EBITDA, net lease-adjusted leverage and organic growth are the company's own non-GAAP measures and definitions. This is analysis of public documents, not investment, legal or tax advice.