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Clearfield (CLFD) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

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Clearfield (CLFD - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $93.13, moving +1.02% from the previous trading session. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.69%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.64%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.18%.

Coming into today, shares of the maker of fiber optic management products had lost 25.32% in the past month. In that same time, the Computer and Technology sector lost 14.62%, while the S&P 500 lost 9.94%.

Investors will be hoping for strength from Clearfield as it approaches its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect Clearfield to post earnings of $0.80 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 50.94%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $69.3 million, up 53.18% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $3.13 per share and revenue of $246 million. These totals would mark changes of +112.93% and +74.77%, respectively, from last year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Clearfield should also be noted by investors. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. Clearfield currently has a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Clearfield has a Forward P/E ratio of 29.45 right now. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 17.04, so we one might conclude that Clearfield is trading at a premium comparatively.

The Wireless Equipment industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 87, which puts it in the top 35% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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