Dycom Industries

Dycom's order backlog hit 12.2 billion dollars this summer, up 53 percent from a year earlier, giving the company nearly two years of already booked work. Revenue grew 46 percent last quarter to just over 2 billion dollars, and adjusted profit per share jumped 45 percent to 5.29 dollars.

Dycom now profits from artificial intelligence infrastructure in two ways, connecting data centers together with long haul fiber cable, a market it values at 20 billion dollars, and wiring the inside of those data centers through its Power Solutions and National Technology Integrators acquisitions. Its newer Building Systems segment already brings in about 20 percent of quarterly revenue and posted a 24.5 percent profit margin last quarter.

Dycom's core communications business needs thousands more trained workers to keep up with demand, and that hiring is eating into profit. The segment's margin slipped from 14.9 percent to 13.6 percent last quarter, and about 150 million dollars of wireless project revenue got pushed into next year.

Dycom carries about 2.5 billion dollars of net debt after its acquisition spree, roughly 2.3 times its adjusted profit. Two customers, AT&T and Verizon, each make up more than 10 percent of revenue, so a pullback in telecom spending from either one would hit Dycom hard.