About Cabling Installation & Maintenance

Our mission: Bringing practical business and technical intelligence to today's structured cabling professionals

For more than 30 years, Cabling Installation & Maintenance has provided useful, practical information to professionals responsible for the specification, design, installation and management of structured cabling systems serving enterprise, data center and other environments. These professionals are challenged to stay informed of constantly evolving standards, system-design and installation approaches, product and system capabilities, technologies, as well as applications that rely on high-performance structured cabling systems. Our editors synthesize these complex issues into multiple information products. This portfolio of information products provides concrete detail that improves the efficiency of day-to-day operations, and equips cabling professionals with the perspective that enables strategic planning for networks’ optimum long-term performance.

Throughout our annual magazine, weekly email newsletters and 24/7/365 website, Cabling Installation & Maintenance digs into the essential topics our audience focuses on.

  • Design, Installation and Testing: We explain the bottom-up design of cabling systems, from case histories of actual projects to solutions for specific problems or aspects of the design process. We also look at specific installations using a case-history approach to highlight challenging problems, solutions and unique features. Additionally, we examine evolving test-and-measurement technologies and techniques designed to address the standards-governed and practical-use performance requirements of cabling systems.
  • Technology: We evaluate product innovations and technology trends as they impact a particular product class through interviews with manufacturers, installers and users, as well as contributed articles from subject-matter experts.
  • Data Center: Cabling Installation & Maintenance takes an in-depth look at design and installation workmanship issues as well as the unique technology being deployed specifically for data centers.
  • Physical Security: Focusing on the areas in which security and IT—and the infrastructure for both—interlock and overlap, we pay specific attention to Internet Protocol’s influence over the development of security applications.
  • Standards: Tracking the activities of North American and international standards-making organizations, we provide updates on specifications that are in-progress, looking forward to how they will affect cabling-system design and installation. We also produce articles explaining the practical aspects of designing and installing cabling systems in accordance with the specifications of established standards.

Cabling Installation & Maintenance is published by Endeavor Business Media, a division of EndeavorB2B.

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Should You Buy Dividend Achiever Cisco Ahead Of Earnings?

Should You Buy Dividend Achiever Cisco Ahead Of Earnings?

Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ: CSCO) has a place on MarketBeat’s Dividend Achievers list of stocks, increasing their payout for at least the past 10 consecutive years.

Although it’s a well-established company, Cisco is not resting on its laurels. It’s developing robust technologies in the areas of AI and machine learning.

It's taking an approach that goes beyond selling networking gear and toward a more holistic model for today’s businesses that need a range of digital connectivity services. Cisco is addressing the needs of various functions for buyers of its gear, including serving their customers, gathering data, and communicating with their workforces. 

 The company reports its fiscal second quarter on February 15 after the close, with analysts eyeing a net income of $0.76 a share on revenue of $13.42 billion. That would be a year-over-year decrease on the bottom line but an increase on the top line. 

Since early December, Cisco has been forming a flat base with a potential buy point shy of $60. Its correction so far has been only 10%, suggesting that investors keep the stock in a holding pattern ahead of earnings. There may also be some profit-taking following a rally of 31.40% between mid-October and mid-December. 

It might appear that Cisco’s chief line of business, networking and server gear, has become commoditized, as Cisco has some significant rivals, including Juniper Networks Inc. (NYSE: JNPR) and Extreme Networks Inc. (NASDAQ: EXTR).

Even so, stock researcher Morningstar includes Cisco in its “wide moat” category of companies with a strong competitive advantage. 

 Rivals Also Growing Earnings 

Both Cisco and Juniper have been trending essentially sideways recently. Both have been growing earnings in seven of the past eight quarters, each showing a year-over-decline two quarters ago. 

At the time, global factors such as the continued Covid lockdowns in China and their ensuing supply chain woes, as well as component shortages and rising inflation, resulted in slower-than-anticipated growth. 

Extreme Networks, whose stock took a hit after its most recent earnings report, but has made up some of that lost ground, faced the same issues in mid-2022. However, its earnings growth bounced back to 26% most recently. The stock declined despite the company beating views and issuing a bright outlook, perhaps because some investors were expecting a “whisper number” or an earnings beat even more than what occurred. 

Juniper and Extreme are smaller than Cisco, with the ability to pivot faster than a large, established corporation that tends to turn like the proverbial ocean liner. Within the computer networking industry, Cisco’s market cap is more than five times the size of the second-largest company, Arista Networks Inc. (NYSE: ANET)

Adapting To New Realities

But Cisco’s size and endurance through so many market cycles and technological developments is also advantageous: It focuses on retaining long-standing enterprise customers and has systems specifically to address that challenge. 

Analysts expect the company to continue growing at a steady pace, anticipating earnings growth of 6% this year and 8% next year. 

Regarding its dividend, Cisco’s current yield is 3.14%, and it’s increased its payout in the past 12 years. The company has also returned capital to shareholders in the past three years with a share buyback program. Its current buyback yield is 4.03%. 

So where does this leave potential buyers ahead of Cisco’s second-quarter report?

Numerous companies from various industries are reporting that supply-chain problems are easing. In particular, the company said last year that it expects the well-documented global chip shortage to have less impact in 2023.

Should You Buy Dividend Achiever Cisco Ahead Of Earnings?

Analysts currently have a “hold” rating on the stock, according to MarketBeat data. The consensus price target is $53.95, with a potential upside of 11.46%. 

Since mid-2019, investors haven’t missed out on many gains by waiting until after earnings to jump in. The earnings report has often been a catalyst for a downturn that precedes a fresh uptrend, meaning recent buyers would have either gotten shaken out or would have been content sitting through a correction in Cisco. 

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