For a little while there, it seemed that maybe, just maybe, the skeptics might have been on to something with Stock Advisor recommendation CDW (NASDAQ:CDWC). After all, the stock has largely just been marking time in a tight range, while revenue growth has been in the single digits. But even though Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) may still be a threat, and while it may be true that some suppliers will try to go to a more customer-direct model, CDW ain't dead yet.

Revenue in this quarter rose nearly 8%, as the company once again witnessed a mix of faster-growing product categories, such as video and software, and slower growers, such as handhelds and PDAs. Growth was again led by the public sector at more than 13%, though corporate-sector sales (up almost 6%) constitute the clear bulk of the revenue base.

Profitability was also better this quarter. While the improvement was largely masked by expenses tied to stock compensation and the opening of a new distribution center, it was there all the same.

Of course, the major question with this stock remains: Can it continue to produce enough growth to fuel an attractive stock price? On one hand, you could argue that direct-to-customer initiatives are rendering the middleman model obsolete. I wouldn't be so hasty on that, though.

Middlemen can be more difficult and costly to displace than you might imagine. Since CDW is a significant part of sales for companies like Hewlett Packard (NYSE:HPQ), Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE), and many smaller companies, the near-term risk of lost sales might be more frightening than the long-term benefits are promising. It's also convenient to ignore that CDW actually does provide services that end-user customers find valuable and worth paying for.

I won't dismiss the risks here out of hand, particularly the need for good, sustainable cash-flow growth, but I'm also not yet close to writing this company's obituary. Today's stock-price jump moves it down a few notches on my watch list, but there's still money to be made here for patient investors.

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Fool contributor Stephen Simpson has no financial interest in any stocks mentioned (that means he's neither long nor short the shares)