Summary
- Just over a week ago Bank of America downgraded Iron Mountain to underperform citing declining recycled paper prices, of all things.
- The Bank of America analyst opted to lower the price target for Iron Mountain from $33 to $25, or 22% downside.
- In order to close the valuation gap, Iron Mountain must be able to improve leverage while continuing to grow the dividend by 4% to 6% per year.
- But I have another idea that I have been pondering, and although this one is not a catalyst, I believe investors should consider the potential opportunity.
- This idea was discussed in more depth with members of my private investing community, iREIT on Alpha. Get started today »
On Friday, July 12, I published a piece called, "A Monopoly of REIT Dividends."
It was all about filling up your portfolio with the best of the best real estate investment trusts, or REITs. And, since it was too entertaining of a concept not to mention, I began by comparing purchasing the picks I made with playing the classic Hasbro game. Here’s just a bit of what I said:
In the U.S. REIT sector, the board is much larger than the game of Monopoly. The sector has its very own classification (under the [Global Industry Classification Standard] GICS) and is well over $2 trillion in enterprise value. These days, one can invest in practically every property category imaginable.
The good thing about the REIT version of Monopoly is that the gamer (or investor) can pick and choose his or her holdings by carefully analyzing the businesses that generates the best growth. And in order to select the best growers, we decided to screen (from the intelligent REIT lab) for the optimal REITs based upon their historical, current, and future growth prospects.
Now here’s something the two “games” share: You don’t build the perfect portfolio on one trip around the board.
As anyone with skin in either game will tell you, it takes time, patience, and a growing amount of money to amass a good monopoly.
Trust me on this one.
It Takes Going Around the Block a Few Times
Or don’t trust me on this one. Consider it for yourself instead.
When you’re playing with pastel paper money, thimbles, irons and miniature metal cars, you’ve got limited moves. Normally, you’ll skip over five, six, seven, or more spaces with every turn you take.
But even if, for the first trek around the board, you rolled snake eyes every single time – allowing for the absolute maximum amount of moves – you’d still only land on 19 spots.
Moreover, not all of them would be buyable properties. We do have Oriental and Vermont Avenue, Electric Company, Virginia Avenue, St. James Place and Tennessee Avenue, Illinois Avenue, Atlantic Avenue, Water Works, and North Carolina and Pennsylvania Avenues.
But you’d also find yourself faced with:
- Community Chest (for better or worse)
- Income Tax – where you’d have to pay 10% of your wealth or $200
- Jail (just visiting)
- Free Parking – where you do get a minimum of $500, probably including that income tax you just paid – but you still don’t get to expand your real estate empire the way you should be doing
- Chance (for better or worse)
- Luxury Tax – where you have to pay $75
That’s from a visual standpoint. According to the rules, though, a third of the way through that circuit, you’d wind up being sent to jail. And, this time, you wouldn’t be “just visiting.”
See my latest article: "Go To Jail, Go Directly To Jail, Do Not Pass Go"
While I sincerely doubt you’d face that latter issue when it’s real cash you’re working with and you’re not literally rolling die to determine your destiny (at least I sincerely hope that’d be the case) there are still some significant limitations to consider.
