Should you sell your Clearfield stock?
Roth Capital analyst Scott Searle maintained a “Buy” rating on Clearfield (Clearfield Stock Quote, Chart, News, Analysts, Financials NASDAQ:CLFD), while lowering his target to $44.00 from $46.00 ahead of second-quarter results.
Clearfield designs and manufactures fibre optic management, protection and delivery products for broadband service providers.
“Overall, general existing customer demand trends have stabilized,” Searle said on May 3, pointing to healthy fibre demand, ongoing builds and early signs of BEAD deployment activity.
Searle said core pre-BEAD fibre demand remains solid, with fibre builds continuing even before a meaningful contribution from federal subsidy programs. He said smaller broadband providers and rural deployments remain key customer bases for Clearfield.
He expects BEAD-funded deployments to begin contributing in the second half of 2026 and ramp further in 2027 and 2028. With 53 of 56 BEAD entities approved and Louisiana leading early deployments, he sees several hundred million dollars of incremental passive-component opportunity for Clearfield over the next several years.
Searle lowered his fiscal 2026 revenue estimate to the low end of management’s $160-million to $170-million guidance range, citing deployment timing and fibre availability headwinds. Still, he said gross margins remain healthy and the company continues to execute well after the Nestor divestiture.
Searle expects Clearfield to generate Adjusted EBITDA of $13.7-million on revenue of $160.0-million in fiscal 2026, improving to $18.4-million on revenue of $199.5-million in fiscal 2027.
Clearfield will report its Q2 results on May 6.
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Nick Waddell
Founder of Cantech Letter
Cantech Letter founder and editor Nick Waddell has lived in five Canadian provinces and is proud of his country's often overlooked contributions to the world of science and technology. Waddell takes a regular shift on the Canadian media circuit, making appearances on CTV, CBC and BNN, and contributing to publications such as Canadian Business and Business Insider.