Corning (GLW) Q4 Earnings Report in Focus

Corning Inc. (NYSE:GLW), founded in 1851, initially started making money by manufacturing light bulbs. During its 170 years long journey, the company manufactured glass for a range of industries such as aerospace, electronics, and smartphone. Its glass is used in car windows, mobile phone screens, fiber optics, spacecraft windows, telescope mirrors, and television.

The company is a major glass supplier for the global electronics market. Some recently surfaced reports claimed that the company is developing an ultra-thin glass cover for the next generation foldable smartphones. If the reports turned out to be true, it could capitalize on the launch of foldable smartphone devices in the future. Corning is already supplying glass to key smartphone players including Apple, Samsung, and Sony. The ceramic shield display incorporated in iPhone 12 is also manufactured by Corning.

If we look at the company’s latest financial performance, Corning on Wednesday reported its earnings and revenue for the three months ended Dec. 31. It reported earnings of $252 million, or 28 cents per share for the fourth quarter, well above $32 million, or 1 cent per share in the comparable period of 2019. On an adjusted basis, the company earned 52 cents per share, above the consensus forecast of 52 cents per share.

Revenue for the quarter came in at $3.35 billion, as compared to $2.82 billion in the same period of 2019. Analysts on average were looking for revenue of $3.18 billion.

The company also issued its financial outlook for the first quarter of 2021. Corning projected core revenue in the range of $3 billion to $3.2 billion for the current quarter, and profit between 40 cents per share to 44 cents per share.

Corning (GLW) shares jumped more than 4 percent on Thursday following the better-than-expected quarterly performance. Overall, its stock value has increased about 30 percent over the past year.