Clearfield, Inc.

Good afternoon. Welcome to Clearfield's fiscal fourth quarter and full year 2021 earnings conference call. I will be your operator this afternoon. Joining us for today's presentation are the company's president and CEO, Sherry Varnek, and CFO, Dan Herzog. Following their commentary, we will open the call for questions. I would like to remind everyone that this call will be recorded and made available for replay via a link in the investor relations section of the company's website. This call is also being webcasted and accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation called the Field Report, which is also available in the investor relations section of the company's website. Please note that during this call, management will be making forward-looking statements regarding future events and the future financial performance of the company. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. It's important to note also that the company undertakes no obligation to update such statements except as required by law. The company cautions you to consider risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements contained in today's press release, field report, and in this conference call. The risk factors section in Clearfield's most recent Form 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission and its subsequent filings on Form 10-Q provides description of those risks. As a reminder, the slides in this presentation are controlled by you, the listener. Please advance forward through the presentation as the speakers present their remarks. With that, I would like to turn the call over to Clearfield CEO, Sherry Bareneck.

Please proceed.

Good afternoon and thank you everyone for joining us today. I hope you are all continuing to stay safe and healthy It's a pleasure to speak with you this afternoon to share Clearfield's results for the fiscal fourth quarter and full year of 2021. Clearfield delivered record-setting financial performance in the fourth quarter and for the full fiscal year 2021 in a market that is changing dramatically. We are in the middle of a historic investment cycle. Due to our consistent focus on customer service, quality products, and our ability to nimbly respond to customers' changing needs, we believe Clearfield has built an advantageous position in the broadband market and continues to benefit from the rising demand for fiber. The continued demand for fiber-fed broadband drove a 66% year-over-year increase in net sales and community broadband, our largest customer market, which helped us achieve $140.8 million in net sales for fiscal year 2021. Our growth in the period was led by double-digit increases from our community broadband market, which was up 64% in the fiscal fourth quarter. The community broadband market has historically been unserved or at least underserved. This market demand is being addressed with organic growth, with existing customers that are putting their own money or financing into their networks, and government-funded programs that are substantial and getting bigger. Bookings led shipments. by $55.6 million for the 12-month period, creating a backlog of $66.4 million as of September 30th, 2021. For those of you who are new to the story, the image on the right shows our patented Clearview cassette that is the foundation of our scalable and modular fiber management platform. Clearfield provides fiber protection, fiber management, and fiber delivery solutions that enable the rapid and cost-effective fiber-fed deployment through the broadband service provider space. We primarily serve the community broadband market, mainly Tier 2 and Tier 3 communications providers, though we also serve customers in the Tier 1 market and multiple system or cable TV operators, often called MSOs. Our product portfolio is focused on scalable, modular deployment that allows speedy deployment through a reduction in the amount of necessary skilled labor. At Clearfield, our mission is to enable the lifestyle that better broadband provides. This was made abundantly clear over the last 18 months as people were working and going to school from home. High-speed broadband is increasingly essential to be able to participate in this modern society. And fiber-fed broadband in particular is being recognized as the answer for future-proof connectivity to the American home and business. We are now in a position where everyone wants to be able to deploy fiber. The demand could be exponential. However, the market can only grow as long as there are technicians and engineers available to meet the demand. Industry professionals estimate that we need to double the number of trained technicians and engineers in the U.S. market. to deploy all the broadband that is required. However, these professionals have also said they believe we can only grow the number of technicians by about 15% a year. As a result, the deployment of high speed broadband through fiber will be extended. The market for fiber fed broadband is not only demand based, but also supplier based. Suppliers are seeing their fiber networks are easier to maintain and generate more revenue per subscriber. So this is truly a perfect storm of catalysts that will help drive Clearfield's future growth. With that, I'll now turn the presentation over to Dan, who will walk us through our financial performance for the fourth quarter and full fiscal year 2021.