Clearfield, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLFD) Sees Significant Decline in Short Interest

Clearfield, Inc. (NASDAQ:CLFD) saw a large decline in short interest in the month of July. As of July 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,690,000 shares, a decline of 6.6% from the June 30th total of 1,810,000 shares. Approximately 14.3% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 154,500 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 10.9 days.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Clearfield news, Chairman Ronald G. Roth purchased 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, May 23rd. The shares were bought at an average cost of $36.40 per share, with a total value of $72,800.00. Following the transaction, the chairman now directly owns 1,261,796 shares in the company, valued at approximately $45,929,374.40. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 16.00% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Clearfield

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of CLFD. Principal Securities Inc. acquired a new position in Clearfield in the fourth quarter worth $25,000. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust boosted its stake in Clearfield by 134.4% in the fourth quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 1,130 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 648 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of Clearfield by 70.4% during the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,082 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $61,000 after acquiring an additional 860 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC raised its position in shares of Clearfield by 28.1% during the fourth quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,936 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $85,000 after acquiring an additional 644 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tower Research Capital LLC TRC raised its position in shares of Clearfield by 11.7% during the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 3,712 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $108,000 after acquiring an additional 389 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.73% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CLFD has been the topic of several recent research reports. Roth Mkm reissued a “buy” rating and set a $47.00 price objective on shares of Clearfield in a report on Wednesday, May 1st. Needham & Company LLC reissued a “buy” rating and set a $42.00 price objective on shares of Clearfield in a report on Thursday, May 16th. Northland Securities raised Clearfield from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $25.00 to $40.00 in a research note on Friday, May 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com raised Clearfield to a “sell” rating in a research note on Friday, June 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $43.50.

Clearfield Price Performance

CLFD stock traded down $1.71 during trading on Thursday, hitting $41.69. The company had a trading volume of 71,661 shares, compared to its average volume of 179,864. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $39.10 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $33.30. Clearfield has a fifty-two week low of $22.91 and a fifty-two week high of $46.69.

Clearfield (NASDAQ:CLFD) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The communications equipment provider reported ($0.40) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.53) by $0.13. The company had revenue of $36.90 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $31.25 million. Clearfield had a negative return on equity of 1.08% and a negative net margin of 1.79%. The business’s revenue was down 43.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.67 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that Clearfield will post -1.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Clearfield

Clearfield, Inc manufactures and sells various fiber connectivity products in the United States and internationally. The company offers FieldSmart, a series of panels, cabinets, wall boxes, and other enclosures; WaveSmart, an optical components integrated for signal coupling, splitting, termination, multiplexing, demultiplexing, and attenuation for integration within its fiber management platform; and active cabinet products.