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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Boring is Beautiful, Illinois Tool Works Stock Fits the Bill

Illinois Tool Works stock price

The markets have been so volatile since the pandemic that boring and stable businesses that report in GAAP numbers are a welcome respite for investors. Industrial products and equipment manufacturer Illinois Tool Works, Inc. (NYSE: ITW) stock has been a safe haven for the risk-averse. Its one-year stock performance is up 5% compared to the S&P 500 down (11%) and the Nasdaq falling (14%) in the same period. The company makes essential tools and equipment products, serving seven segments comprising 87 global divisions.

Industrial Staples 

ITW is akin to a consumer staples company for companies. Its essential products make it an industrial staples business. Its seven segments include construction products, food equipment, automotive original equipment manufacturing (OEM), specialty products, electronics, fluids, and welding. The business achieved a record Q4 2022 operating income.

Unlike so many businesses facing margin compression, ITW experienced operating margin expansion. The company navigated through supply chain challenges and cost inflation to deliver 12% organic growth. Momentum was so strong heading into 2023 that It also raised its profit estimates for the year.

Competitors

The company has many competitors within its seven segments. Some of them include Fastenal Co. (NASDAQ: FAST) for fasteners, 3M Company (NYSE: MMM) for its polymers and fluids, Emerson Electric Co. (NYSE: EMR), and Stanley Black & Decker Inc. (NYSE: SWK) for tools. As echoed by competitor Fastenal, ITW sees demand continue to soften with commercial construction.     

Slow and Steady Wins the Race

On Feb. 2, 2023, ITW released its fourth-quarter 2022 results for the quarter ending Dec. 2022. The company's GAAP earnings-per-share (EPS) profit of $2.95 includes the $0.61 of divestiture gains, which may not be comparable to the $2.53 consensus analyst estimates or missed by ($0.19) if backing out the divestiture gains. Revenues grew by 8% year-over-year (YOY) to $3.97 billion, beating analyst estimates of $3.90 billion. Foreign currency translations or the strong U.S. dollar headwind had a (5%) impact on revenues. The company declared a $1.31 dividend for shareholders of record March 31, 2023, with an ex-dividend on March 30, 2023. The dividend will be payable on April 13, 2023.

Segment Growth

Five of its seven segments had double-digit revenue growth. Automotive OEM led with 20% organic growth, attributed to supply chain issues last year. North America saw 15% revenue growth, while Europe had 23% YoY growth. China's revenues rose 17%, driven by noticeable strength in electric vehicles (EVs). Company-wide organic growth for the quarter was 13% in North America, 11% in Europe, and 9% in Asia.

 

Weakening Construction Offset by Strong Residential Housing Demand

The construction segment experienced a demand slowdown bringing the organic growth rate to 4%. Residential construction was up 11%, while commercial construction fell (6%) in the U.S. Part of the shortfall was due to robust comps of 21% growth in the year-ago period.

Lifting EPS and Lowballing Revenue Guidance

ITW raised its full-year 2023 guidance for EPS between $9.40 to $9.80 versus $9.34 consensus analyst estimates. The company is anticipating slowing demand in semiconductor-related end markets in addition to construction, commercial welding, auto aftermarket, and appliances. For this reason, they were cautious about top line revenue estimates. Organic revenue growth is expected between 3% to 5%. Operating margins are expected between 24.5% to 25.5% crediting enterprise initiatives to add up to 100 bps. 

Weekly Rising Channel

The weekly candlestick chart on ITW has been in a rising price channel since reaching a swing low of $179.39 in October 2023. Shares triggered their first weekly market structure low (MSL) on the $193.34 breakout powered by a rising stochastic. Shares triggered a second weekly MSL on the breakout through $221.32, driving the stock to a high of $253.37 at the end of January 2023.

The stock has been pulled back as the weekly stochastic oscillates towards the 40-band. The weekly 20-period exponential moving average (EMA) support is slowly rising at $226.43, with the weekly 50-period MA support below $208.78.

The pullback to the lower trendline bounced off $224.69, setting up another rising to the upper trendline or a breakdown through the trendline. Pullback supports are at $213.38, $204.82, $193.34, $188.14, and $184.21.

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