Needham & Company LLC Reaffirms Buy Rating for Clearfield (NASDAQ:CLFD)

Needham & Company LLC restated their buy rating on shares of Clearfield (NASDAQ:CLFD) in a report released on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. Needham & Company LLC currently has a $36.00 target price on the communications equipment provider’s stock.

Separately, Roth Mkm reduced their price objective on Clearfield from $49.00 to $47.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Clearfield currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $42.20.

Clearfield Price Performance

NASDAQ CLFD opened at $28.25 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $415.56 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.45 and a beta of 1.32. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $29.87 and a 200-day simple moving average of $27.89. Clearfield has a 52-week low of $22.91 and a 52-week high of $50.82.

Clearfield (NASDAQ:CLFD) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 1st. The communications equipment provider reported ($0.35) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.40) by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $34.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $29.88 million. Clearfield had a net margin of 6.00% and a return on equity of 4.22%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 60.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.00 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Clearfield will post -1.03 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Clearfield

In other Clearfield news, Chairman Ronald G. Roth purchased 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The shares were bought at an average price of $29.62 per share, for a total transaction of $59,240.00. Following the purchase, the chairman now directly owns 1,259,796 shares in the company, valued at approximately $37,315,157.52. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 16.00% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Clearfield

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC grew its stake in Clearfield by 54.4% in the 3rd quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 690 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $72,000 after buying an additional 243 shares during the last quarter. Credit Suisse AG boosted its holdings in Clearfield by 3.2% during the second quarter. Credit Suisse AG now owns 8,134 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $503,000 after acquiring an additional 256 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Clearfield by 6.0% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 4,959 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $307,000 after purchasing an additional 281 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its stake in shares of Clearfield by 0.3% in the second quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 119,015 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $7,373,000 after purchasing an additional 349 shares during the period. Finally, BNP Paribas Arbitrage SA increased its stake in shares of Clearfield by 6.6% in the first quarter. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SA now owns 5,786 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $377,000 after purchasing an additional 359 shares during the period. 88.73% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Clearfield Company Profile

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.