Clearfield Inc

To the shareholders and the board of directors of Clearfield, Inc.:

Opinions on the Financial Statements and Internal Control over Financial Reporting

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Clearfield, Inc. (the "Company") as of September 30, 2024 and 2023, the related consolidated statements of earnings, shareholders' equity, and cash flows, for each of the three years in the period ended September 30, 2024, and the related notes (collectively referred to as the "consolidated financial statements"). We also have audited the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of September 30, 2024, based on criteria established inInternal Control–* Integrated Framework: (2013)* issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO).

In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of September 30, 2024 and 2023, and the results of their operations and their cash flows for each of the three years in the period ended September 30, 2024, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. Also in our opinion, the Company maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of September 30, 2024, based on criteria established inInternal Control–* Integrated Framework: (2013)* issued by COSO.

Basis for Opinions

The Company’s management is responsible for these consolidated financial statements, for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting, and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, included in the accompanying management report. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company's consolidated financial statements and an opinion on the Company’s internal control over financial reporting based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) ("PCAOB") and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audits to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the consolidated financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud and whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects.

Our audits of the financial statements included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the consolidated financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Such procedures included examining, on a test basis, evidence regarding the amounts and disclosures in the consolidated financial statements. Our audits also included evaluating the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the consolidated financial statements. Our audit of internal control over financial reporting included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, and testing and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk. Our audits also included performing such other procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinions.

Definition and Limitations of Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

A company's internal control over financial reporting is a process designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company's internal control over financial reporting includes those policies and procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions of the assets of the company; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company's a sets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.

Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance

with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.

Critical Audit Matters

The critical audit matter communicated below is a matter arising from the current period audit of the financial statements that was communicated or required to be communicated to the audit committee and that: (1) relates to accounts or disclosures that are material to the financial statements and (2) involved our especially challenging, subjective, or complex judgments. The communication of critical audit matters does not alter in any way our opinion on the financial statements, taken as a whole, and we are not, by communicating the critical audit matter below, providing separate opinions on the critical audit matter or on the accounts or disclosures to which it relates.

Inventories, Net–** Excess, Slow-Moving and Obsolete Inventory Reserve- Refer to Note 1 to the consolidated financial statements**

Critical Audit Matter Description

The Company establishes inventory reserves which represent an amount for excess, slow-moving and obsolete inventory on hand that is expected to be written off or otherwise disposed of below cost at a future date. The Company’s estimate of the appropriate amount of the excess, slow-moving and obsolete inventory reserve utilizes certain inputs and involves judgment. Such inputs include data associated with historical sales trends, expected product life, forecasted sales demand and product mix and the Company’s core products. The calculation and analysis of historical sales data, expected product life, and forecasted sales demand and the application of this analysis to on-hand inventory involves complex analysis.

We identified the estimated inventory reserve for excess, slow-moving and obsolete inventory as a critical audit matter given the estimation uncertainty is impacted by a number of subjective factors including product lifecycle and forecasted sales demand. This required a high degree of auditor judgment and an increased extent of effort when performing audit procedures to evaluate the methodology and the reasonableness of these subjective factors in combination with assumptions and inputs including historical sales trends, forecasted sales demand, and the on-hand inventory product mix used to determine excess, slow-moving and obsolete inventory.

How We Addressed the Matter in Our Audit

The primary procedures we performed to address this critical audit matter included:

/s/Baker Tilly, US, LLP

We have served as the Company's auditor since 2013.

Minneapolis, Minnesota

November 15, 2024