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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3 Reasons to Sell ALRM and 1 Stock to Buy Instead

ALRM Cover Image

Over the past six months, Alarm.com has been a great trade. While the S&P 500 was flat, the stock price has climbed by 8% to $58.43 per share. This run-up might have investors contemplating their next move.

Is now the time to buy Alarm.com, or should you be careful about including it in your portfolio? Get the full stock story straight from our expert analysts, it’s free.

We’re happy investors have made money, but we don't have much confidence in Alarm.com. Here are three reasons why we avoid ALRM and a stock we'd rather own.

Why Is Alarm.com Not Exciting?

Founded in 2000 as a business unit within MicroStrategy, Alarm.com (NASDAQ: ALRM) is a software-as-a-service platform that enables users to control their security systems and smart home appliances from a single app.

1. Weak Billings Point to Soft Demand

Billings is a non-GAAP metric that is often called “cash revenue” because it shows how much money the company has collected from customers in a certain period. This is different from revenue, which must be recognized in pieces over the length of a contract.

Alarm.com’s billings came in at $241.8 million in Q4, and over the last four quarters, its year-on-year growth averaged 6.5%. This performance was underwhelming and suggests that increasing competition is causing challenges in acquiring/retaining customers. Alarm.com Billings

2. Projected Revenue Growth Is Slim

Forecasted revenues by Wall Street analysts signal a company’s potential. Predictions may not always be accurate, but accelerating growth typically boosts valuation multiples and stock prices while slowing growth does the opposite.

Over the next 12 months, sell-side analysts expect Alarm.com’s revenue to rise by 4.3%, a deceleration versus its 7.9% annualized growth for the past three years. This projection doesn't excite us and implies its products and services will see some demand headwinds.

3. Low Gross Margin Reveals Weak Structural Profitability

For software companies like Alarm.com, gross profit tells us how much money remains after paying for the base cost of products and services (typically servers, licenses, and certain personnel). These costs are usually low as a percentage of revenue, explaining why software is more lucrative than other sectors.

Alarm.com’s gross margin is worse than the software industry average, giving it less room than its competitors to hire new talent that can expand its products and services. As you can see below, it averaged a 65.3% gross margin over the last year. That means Alarm.com paid its providers a lot of money ($34.70 for every $100 in revenue) to run its business. Alarm.com Trailing 12-Month Gross Margin

Final Judgment

Alarm.com isn’t a terrible business, but it doesn’t pass our quality test. With its shares beating the market recently, the stock trades at 3.6× forward price-to-sales (or $58.43 per share). Investors with a higher risk tolerance might like the company, but we think the potential downside is too great. We're fairly confident there are better investments elsewhere. We’d suggest looking at a top digital advertising platform riding the creator economy.

Stocks We Like More Than Alarm.com

With rates dropping, inflation stabilizing, and the elections in the rearview mirror, all signs point to the start of a new bull run - and we’re laser-focused on finding the best stocks for this upcoming cycle.

Put yourself in the driver’s seat by checking out our Top 5 Growth Stocks for this month. This is a curated list of our High Quality stocks that have generated a market-beating return of 175% over the last five years.

Stocks that made our list in 2019 include now familiar names such as Nvidia (+2,183% between December 2019 and December 2024) as well as under-the-radar businesses like Sterling Infrastructure (+1,096% five-year return). Find your next big winner with StockStory today for free.

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