Clearfield Inc (CLFD)
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Clearfield equips rural U.S. broadband providers with fiber connectivity hardware — and lights up four trend filters in our in-house stock scanner at once (data as of July 10, 2026), while Reddit musters just 2 mentions in 24 hours (as of July 15, 2026). We read the annual reports (10-K) for fiscal years 2024 and 2025 and the quarterly report (10-Q) as of March 31, 2026: a revenue mountain that ran from plus 92 to minus 44 percent, a recovery that snagged on delays in the BEAD funding program in the latest quarter (minus 15 percent), a Finnish acquisition that went for one dollar — and $147 million in cash and investments with no bank debt. Not investment advice — just the question of what a promised windfall is worth before the money is wired.
Appears in These Scanners
This stock currently matches 4 of our scanner strategies — each hit links to the scanner.
Only genuine hits from verified scanners count; pure ranking metrics (P/E, P/S, and similar, which just sort the whole universe) don't count as a hit. View all scanners
Basics
Performance
Valuation
Profitability
Balance Sheet & Safety
Growth
Quality & Screener
AI Rating
NeutralGeprüft am 16.07.2026 gegen die Geschäftsberichte (10-K) für die Geschäftsjahre 2025 (eingereicht 25.11.2025) und 2024 (eingereicht 15.11.2024) sowie die vier jüngsten Quartalsberichte (10-Q, zuletzt zum 31.03.2026, eingereicht 07.05.2026): In den ausgewerteten SEC-Filings von Clearfield findet sich kein wesentlicher KI-Bezug — die Volltextsuche nach „artificial intelligence“, „machine learning“, „generative“, „large language“, „LLM“ und „AI“ liefert in allen sechs Dokumenten keinen einzigen Treffer. Clearfield verkauft Glasfaser-Management-, Schutz- und Anschlusstechnik für Breitbandnetze (FTTx); weder wird KI als Umsatzquelle oder operatives Werkzeug beschrieben, noch nennen die Risk Factors (Item 1A) KI als konkretes Geschäftsrisiko für das eigene Modell. Nach dem Kriterienkatalog dokumentierter Negativ-Befund: „neutral“.
View the full file — quotes, sources, reviewed filings
Filings Reviewed: 10-Q 2026-05-07 · 10-Q 2026-02-09 · 10-Q 2025-08-07 · 10-Q 2025-05-09 · 10-K 2025-11-25 · 10-K 2024-11-15
Rated on July 16, 2026 · How the Rating Is Built
Highlighted are things our editorial team noticed: green = stands out as strong, red = deserves a closer look. No single metric is a verdict on its own — always read it in context.
Quarterly Figures
| Quarter | EPS (Earnings Per Share) | EPS YoY (%) | Sales ($M) | Sales YoY (%) | Net Margin (%) | OCF ($M) | FCF ($M) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024: Q4 | -0.13 | – | 36 | 3.60 | -5.40 | 7 | 5 |
| 2025: Q1 | 0.09 | – | 47 | 27.80 | 2.80 | 3 | 0 |
| 2025: Q2 | 0.12 | – | 50 | 2.30 | 3.20 | 8 | 7 |
| 2025: Q3 | -0.65 | – | 18 | -62.40 | -51.60 | 11 | 12 |
| 2025: Q4 | -0.04 | – | 34 | -3.20 | -1.80 | 0 | -1 |
| 2026: Q1 | -0.04 | -141.00 | 34 | -27.10 | -1.50 | -1 | -2 |
- EPS (Earnings Per Share):
- Quarterly profit divided by the total share count — how much of the profit works out to a single share.
- YoY (Year over Year):
- Change versus the same quarter a year ago — this is how you compare without seasonal distortion (e.g. the holiday shopping season).
- Sales:
- All revenue for the quarter, before any costs are deducted — the top line of the income statement.
- Net Margin:
- What percentage of sales is left over as profit in the end. Negative means the company is posting a loss.
- OCF (Operating Cash Flow):
- The cash that actually flows into the till from the core business during the quarter — harder to dress up than book profit.
- FCF (Free Cash Flow):
- Operating cash flow minus capital expenditures — the money that's genuinely free to use, say for paying down debt, buybacks, or dividends.
Assessment: Opportunities & Risks
$147.1 million in cash and investments against zero bank debt, $242.8 million of equity on $263.5 million of total assets (March 31, 2026), an Altman Z around 20; the buyback program was raised to $85 million in November 2025 — Clearfield can afford to wait for BEAD (quarterly report 10-Q as of 03/31/2026).
Revenue in the second quarter of fiscal year 2026 minus 15 percent to $34.4 million — per the quarterly report in part because of "delays in the BEAD program"; the annual report warns explicitly that customers time orders to the availability of subsidies. The story’s catalyst is currently braking the business.
Boom-bust as a system property: plus 92 percent (FY 2022), minus 44 percent (FY 2024), plus 20 percent (FY 2025), minus 15 percent (Q2 FY 2026) — amplified by two distributors with a combined 31 percent of revenue and no purchase obligation at all (10-K FY 2025, Note 7).
The Nestor Cables acquisition (roughly $16 million, July 2022) ended, after a $16.6 million impairment, for $1 in cash (November 11, 2025) — an expensive cycle misstep, but ended consistently rather than window-dressed; since then the money flows into the company’s own shares ($16.5 plus $12.6 million of buybacks since October 2024).
A Stan Weinstein stage-2 uptrend, price above the 50- and 200-day averages, institutional accumulation and plus 40 percent in three months meet a trailing P/E around 168, a fundamental grade of D and a Piotroski score of 3 of 9 (data as of July 10, 2026) — the market is paying for a date no filing names; net of cash, the operating business costs roughly 2.7 times revenue.
Clearfield is a solidly financed waiting room: $147.1 million of net cash, no bank debt, and a management team that buys back its own shares and ended the Nestor misstep for one dollar. But the business is not yet delivering the story — the latest quarter shrank 15 percent, explicitly in part because of the BEAD delays, two distributors account for nearly a third of revenue, and at 168 times trailing earnings the market is paying for the subsidy future, not the present. Whoever invests here buys a well-capitalized option on Washington’s payout calendar. Not investment advice.
- CLFD reached our research list via the confluence of four trend hits in our in-house stock scanner (data as of July 10, 2026); the Reddit hype scanner showed just 2 mentions in 24 hours at the same time (ApeWisdom, as of July 15, 2026) — attention is not a buy argument here, it is simply absent.
- Scanner metrics (P/E, P/S, Piotroski, Altman Z, fundamental grade) are computed from trailing twelve-month figures; the Nestor impairment (Q4 FY 2025) and the BEAD dip (Q2 FY 2026) are baked in, a potential funding surge naturally is not.
- Price and valuation figures are dated to July 10, 2026 (about $37.60, market value roughly $550 million); analyses are evergreen, daily prices are not a buy argument. Clearfield’s fiscal year ends September 30 — all quarterly references carry that fiscal-year offset.
About the Company
Clearfield, Inc. entwirft, fertigt und vertreibt zusammen mit seinen Tochtergesellschaften Produkte für das Glasfaser-Management, den -Schutz und die -Übertragung in den USA und international.
| Employees | 243 |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Minneapolis, MN |
| Website | seeclearfield.com |
| IPO Date | 7. Aug 1986 |
| Next Earnings | 5. Aug 2026 |
Management
| Name | Title | Birth Year |
|---|---|---|
| Cheryl P. Beranek | CEO, President & Director | 1962 |
| Daniel R. Herzog | Chief Financial Officer | 1964 |
| John P. Hill | Chief Operating Officer | 1966 |
| Skip Hansen | Chief Information Officer | – |
| Frank J. Brixius Jr. | General Counsel & Secretary | – |
| Anis Khemakhem | Chief Commercial Officer | 1977 |
| Bob Cody | Vice President of Human Resources & Office of Resource Management | – |
Executives per the latest required filings; titles kept in their original language. Source: fundamental data.
Chart
Interactive price chart (TradingView).
Data as of: July 20, 2026 · Source: fundamental data & SEC filings (annual and quarterly reports, 10-K/10-Q)
Note: pure fact-based analysis, not investment advice and not a solicitation to buy or sell. All figures without guarantee.