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Two Dividend Income Buys: Altria and Iron Mountain
Investors seeking regular dividend income have two stocks to buy. Altria (MO), whose stock is in a downtrend, yields around 9.5%. Iron Mountain (IRM), a digital storage REIT, traded at a high last week. It still has the potential to reward investors.
Altria reaffirmed its 2024 earnings of $5.00 to $5.15 a share at a Consumer Analyst Group of NY Conference last Wednesday. In the second half of 2024, growth will weigh positively on its earnings. The firm assumes that enforcement efforts on e-vapor will have a limited impact on its business.
Altria’s NJOY and Vuse are best-selling e-vapes that consumers like.
Iron Mountain reported an impressive 14% increase in its normalized FFO in Q4 2023. The firm, which provides document storage services and data centers, expects funds from operations of $4.39 - $4.51, up from $4.12 last year. Its revenue, adjusted EBITDA, and normalized FFO per share in Q4 beat consensus estimates.
The firm declared a 65-cent a-share quarterly dividend. However, the FFO growth suggests that Iron Mountain will hike its dividend rate. It would need a yield that is higher than 3.5%. Treasury bills pay more than 5%, so the firm would need to increase dividends to attract more income investors in 2024.
