CEO Pay Watch Clearfield Inc.

Cheryl Beranek, president, CEO

Total compensation: $4,309,913 for the year ended Sept. 30

Salary: $281,689

Bonus: $100,000

Non-equity incentive pay: $255,981

Other compensation: $12,373

Exercised stock options: $3,428,500

Value realized on vesting shares: $231,370

New stock options: 42,500

Total fiscal 2014 shareholder return: –5.2 percent

Note: Beranek's total compensation increased 237 percent from the previous year's compensation of $1.3 million. Most of the increase was from the $3.4 million in previously issued stock options that Beranek exercised.

Beranek's base salary rose nearly 7 percent during the year; her performance-based cash bonus dropped 35 percent from the previous year.

Shares of Clearfield, a maker of fiber-optic and copper components for the data and telecommunications markets, have alternated between years when the stock has gone up triple digits and years when the stock has declined. The stock fell 5.2 percent in the last fiscal year ended Sept. 30, but since Beranek was named CEO in June 2007, the stock has had a total annualized return of 37.2 percent.

Patrick Kennedy