Head-To-Head Survey: Iron Mountain (NYSE:IRM) vs. CoreCivic (NYSE:CXW)

Iron Mountain (NYSE:IRM) and CoreCivic (NYSE:CXW) are both finance companies, but which is the better investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their risk, dividends, profitability, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership and valuation.

Profitability

This table compares Iron Mountain and CoreCivic’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Iron Mountain	5.45%	282.93%	3.74%
CoreCivic	3.34%	5.74%	2.73%

Insider & Institutional Ownership

80.1% of Iron Mountain shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 85.1% of CoreCivic shares are owned by institutional investors. 2.1% of Iron Mountain shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 1.9% of CoreCivic shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Iron Mountain and CoreCivic’s gross revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Iron Mountain	$5.48 billion	4.79	$184.23 million	$0.66	135.79
CoreCivic	$1.90 billion	0.76	$67.59 million	$0.56	23.18

Iron Mountain has higher revenue and earnings than CoreCivic. CoreCivic is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Iron Mountain, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Risk & Volatility

Iron Mountain has a beta of 0.95, meaning that its share price is 5% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, CoreCivic has a beta of 0.87, meaning that its share price is 13% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Iron Mountain and CoreCivic, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Iron Mountain	1	0	5	0	2.67
CoreCivic	0	2	1	0	2.33

Iron Mountain presently has a consensus target price of $78.33, suggesting a potential downside of 12.59%. CoreCivic has a consensus target price of $16.50, suggesting a potential upside of 27.12%. Given CoreCivic’s higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe CoreCivic is more favorable than Iron Mountain.

Summary

Iron Mountain beats CoreCivic on 12 of the 14 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Iron Mountain

Iron Mountain Incorporated (NYSE: IRM) is a global leader in information management services. Founded in 1951 and trusted by more than 240,000 customers worldwide, Iron Mountain serves to protect and elevate the power of our customers' work. Through a range of offerings including digital transformation, data centers, secure records storage, information management, asset lifecycle management, secure destruction and art storage and logistics, Iron Mountain helps businesses bring light to their dark data, enabling customers to unlock value and intelligence from their stored digital and physical assets at speed and with security, while helping them meet their environmental goals.

About CoreCivic

CoreCivic, Inc. owns and operates partnership correctional, detention, and residential reentry facilities in the United States. It operates through three segments: CoreCivic Safety, CoreCivic Community, and CoreCivic Properties. The company provides a range of solutions to government partners that serve the public good through corrections and detention management, a network of residential reentry centers to help address America's recidivism crisis, and government real estate solutions. Its correctional, detention, and residential reentry facilities offer rehabilitation and educational programs, including basic education, faith-based services, life skills and employment training, and substance abuse treatment. The company owns and operates correctional and detention facilities, residential reentry centers, and properties for lease. CoreCivic, Inc. was founded in 1983 and is based in Brentwood, Tennessee.