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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Mega Buybacks in 2025: Why These 3 Leading Stocks Are Buys

Businessman giving or paying money, US dollar bills - web banner — Photo

Shoe Carnival (NASDAQ: SCVL), Mondelez’s (NASDAQ: MDLZ), and Kroger (NYSE: KR)announced major buybacks in December that should help support their price action over time. Today's question is whether these stocks will be classified as Buys, Sells, or Holds for 2025, and the answer is Buy, if for differing reasons with each stock. Here’s a look at why investors should be interested in them. 

Shoe Carnival: Undervalued Small-Cap With a Solid Dividend

Shoe Carnival faces headwinds in 2024, like all retailers, but still generates reasonably stable results and sufficient cash flow to sustain its capital return outlook. That includes up to $50 million in share repurchases, about 5% of the market cap, but that is not why this stock is a Buy. The company’s buybacks are a backstop to share-based compensation and are unreliable as capital returns. The highlights from 2024 include no repurchases, a moderately higher share count, and significantly improved shareholder value tied to operations and acquisitions. It’s a buy because of its balance sheet and dividend. 

The company’s operations and balance sheet allow it to make acquisitions such as Rogan’s, which added 28 or about 7% more stores to the footprint. At the end of FQ3, the balance sheet highlights included increased cash, current, and total assets partially offset by increased liabilities. The net result was an 11% increase in shareholder equity and total leverage of less than 0.8x equity. The cash flow and balance sheet also allow for a healthy and reliable dividend worth 1.6% in yield with shares near $34.25. The dividend is less than 20% of the earnings outlook, and the distribution is growing. The company has increased for 12 consecutive years and is on track to make another double-digit increase in early 2025. 

Shoe Carnival SCVL stock chart

Mondelez Authorizes $9 Billion Repurchase Authorization: Share Count Is Falling

Mondelez's $9 billion repurchase authorization is more of a meal for investors. This stock is a Buy for its dividend and buybacks, which reduced the count by 1.9% year-over-year for Q3 and by 1.7% year-to-date. The new authorization replaces the old and is sufficient to keep the company buying shares at the current pace for several quarters. Capital return, including dividends, is $2.9 billion for the first nine months of the year and will top $3 billion by the end of the year. 

The dividend is attractive. The stock yields over 3%, trading at 17x, which is more than double the broad market average at a value and a high-yielding value compared to peers. The company is also growing its distribution at a double-digit rate, which it can sustain due to core growth and the declining share count. Regarding the balance sheet, the company uses debt to improve cash flow, but it is well-managed at only 0.6x equity, leaving it in a healthy position.

Analysts agree that this stock is a value. The consensus estimate has fallen modestly since earlier in the year but is relatively steady compared to last year and earlier in 2024, suggesting a 30% discount with the stock trading near $59.50. 

Mondelez MDLZ stock chart

Kroger Buys Back Shares! Albertson’s Merger Quashed

Kroger could not buy Albertson’s (NYSE: ACI), but it doesn’t matter. The company’s financial position was robust and only strengthened as the process extended. The net result is that Kroger had built an incredible cash position preparing for the acquisition and is now using the cash to buy back shares.

The company authorized a $7.5 billion buyback plan, worth about 17% of the market cap, with $5.5 allotted for an accelerated buy completed in mid-December. The remainder is worth a mid-single digit share amount and is likely to be executed in 2025 with cash on hand and then later increased.

Kroger KR stock chart

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