Iron Mountain second-quarter FFO jumps on strong demand for data storage

(Reuters) - Iron Mountain on Thursday posted a rise in funds from operations (FFO) for the second quarter, on the back of rising demand for its data-center business.

Despite macroeconomic uncertainties, businesses are investing heavily in data centers to handle the growing AI workload and migrate to the cloud, benefiting companies such as Iron Mountain that lease data centers.

The company's adjusted funds from operations, a key measure of cash flow, rose 10% to $1.08 per share in the quarter ended June 30, from the year-ago period.

Iron Mountain's board increased the quarterly cash dividend by 10% to $0.715 per share for the third-quarter.

The real estate investment trust, which offers cloud data management services and leases its data centers to clients, reported quarterly revenue of $1.53 billion, ahead of analysts' estimates of $1.51 billion, according to LSEG data.

The company's storage rental segment, which accounts for the largest share in revenue, rose 11% to $920 million from a year earlier.

(Reporting by Priyanka.G in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)