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What's in the Cards for Iron Mountain (IRM) in Q4 Earnings?

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Iron Mountain Incorporated (IRM - Free Report) , a leading provider of data protection and information management services, is set to release its fourth-quarter 2016 results on Feb 23. Last quarter, the company delivered a negative earnings surprise of 24.14%. Moreover, it has posted an average negative earnings surprise of 6.86% over the past four quarters.

We note that Iron Mountain has outperformed the Zacks REIT And Equity Trust - Other industry in the last one year. The company’s shares have increased 26.15% compared with the industry’s gain of 13.54% during the period.

Let’s see how things are shaping up for this announcement.

Factors at Play

Iron Mountain’s diversified revenue base remains a positive. In addition, a strong product portfolio and increasing market share are growth catalysts. Moreover, the company’s entry into the data center market could be another positive.

Furthermore, the company has an aggressive acquisition strategy to supplement organic growth in storage revenues. Iron Mountain is also likely to benefit from its expansion of the company’s footprint to 45 countries.

But the costs of such initiatives are expected to weigh on financials, especially as it already has a highly leveraged balance sheet. Also, volatile currency environment and competition from the likes of Farmland Partners Inc. (FPI - Free Report) and Corrections Corp. of America  and others remain overhangs.

Earnings Whispers

Our proven model does not conclusively show that Iron Mountain is likely to beat earnings estimates this quarter. This is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) for this to happen. This is not the case here as you will see below:

Zacks ESP: Earnings ESP for Iron Mountain is 0.00%. This is because the Most Accurate estimate and Zacks Consensus Estimate are both pegged at 45 cents. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Zacks Rank: Iron Mountain has a Zacks Rank #3. Though Zacks Rank #1, 2 or 3 increases the predictive power of ESP, the company’s ESP of 0.00% makes surprise prediction difficult.

We caution against stocks with a Zacks Rank #4 or 5 (Sell rated) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions.

A Stock That Warrants a Look

Here is a company that you may want to consider as our model shows that these have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat in their upcoming release:

The Priceline Group Inc. with an Earnings ESP of +0.46% and a Zacks Rank #3. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

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