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.

Contact Cabling Installation & Maintenance

Editorial

Patrick McLaughlin

Serena Aburahma

Advertising and Sponsorship Sales

Peter Fretty - Vice President, Market Leader

Tim Carli - Business Development Manager

Brayden Hudspeth - Sales Development Representative

Subscriptions and Memberships

Subscribe to our newsletters and manage your subscriptions

Feedback/Problems

Send a message to our general in-box

 

Redfin (RDFN): Buy, Sell, or Hold Post Q4 Earnings?

RDFN Cover Image

Over the past six months, Redfin’s shares (currently trading at $11.05) have posted a disappointing 16.6% loss while the S&P 500 was down 1.6%. This may have investors wondering how to approach the situation.

Is there a buying opportunity in Redfin, or does it present a risk to your portfolio? See what our analysts have to say in our full research report, it’s free.

Despite the more favorable entry price, we don't have much confidence in Redfin. Here are three reasons why there are better opportunities than RDFN and a stock we'd rather own.

Why Do We Think Redfin Will Underperform?

Founded by a former medical school student, electrical engineer, and Amazon data engineer, Redfin (NASDAQ: RDFN) is a real estate company offering brokerage services through an online platform.

1. Decline in Brokerage Transactions Points to Weak Demand

Revenue growth can be broken down into changes in price and volume (for companies like Redfin, our preferred volume metric is brokerage transactions). While both are important, the latter is the most critical to analyze because prices have a ceiling.

Redfin’s brokerage transactions came in at 11,441 in the latest quarter, and over the last two years, averaged 12.2% year-on-year declines. This performance was underwhelming and implies there may be increasing competition or market saturation. It also suggests Redfin might have to lower prices or invest in product improvements to grow, factors that can hinder near-term profitability. Redfin Brokerage Transactions

2. EPS Trending Down

Analyzing the long-term change in earnings per share (EPS) shows whether a company's incremental sales were profitable – for example, revenue could be inflated through excessive spending on advertising and promotions.

Redfin’s earnings losses deepened over the last five years as its EPS dropped 5.5% annually. We tend to steer our readers away from companies with falling EPS, where diminishing earnings could imply changing secular trends and preferences. Consumer Discretionary companies are particularly exposed to this, and if the tide turns unexpectedly, Redfin’s low margin of safety could leave its stock price susceptible to large downswings.

Redfin Trailing 12-Month EPS (Non-GAAP)

3. Short Cash Runway Exposes Shareholders to Potential Dilution

As long-term investors, the risk we care about most is the permanent loss of capital, which can happen when a company goes bankrupt or raises money from a disadvantaged position. This is separate from short-term stock price volatility, something we are much less bothered by.

Redfin burned through $43.52 million of cash over the last year, and its $922.1 million of debt exceeds the $124.7 million of cash on its balance sheet. This is a deal breaker for us because indebted loss-making companies spell trouble.

Redfin Net Debt Position

Unless the Redfin’s fundamentals change quickly, it might find itself in a position where it must raise capital from investors to continue operating. Whether that would be favorable is unclear because dilution is a headwind for shareholder returns.

We remain cautious of Redfin until it generates consistent free cash flow or any of its announced financing plans materialize on its balance sheet.

Final Judgment

We see the value of companies helping consumers, but in the case of Redfin, we’re out. After the recent drawdown, the stock trades at 54.7× forward EV-to-EBITDA (or $11.05 per share). At this valuation, there’s a lot of good news priced in - we think there are better stocks to buy right now. We’d suggest looking at a dominant Aerospace business that has perfected its M&A strategy.

Stocks We Would Buy Instead of Redfin

The elections are now behind us. With rates dropping and inflation cooling, many analysts expect a breakout market - and we’re zeroing in on the stocks that could benefit immensely.

Take advantage of the rebound 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.

Stock Quote API & Stock News API supplied by www.cloudquote.io
Quotes delayed at least 20 minutes.
By accessing this page, you agree to the following
Privacy Policy and Terms Of Service.