Ahead Of Corning's Q4 Results

(RTTNews) - Specialty glass maker Corning Inc. (GLW) faces macroeconomic headwinds such as weakening global economy, the unexpected devaluation of the Chinese currency, and the softening in the television and IT retail markets.

Despite these challenges, the company is bucked up by several trends that support its long-term success, including the improving pricing environment in Display market. The market for cover glass is expected to be up 10% this year, and the company is gaining share in China and touch notebooks. Also, Corning expects to extend long-term supply agreement with one of its largest LCD customers through 2025, and Optical Communications is expected to deliver another year of double-digit sales growth.

Over the past decade, the company has grown sales, net profit after tax, earnings per share and operating cash flow at double-digit rates.

Corning expects to deploy more than $20 billion through 2019, and plans to distribute at least $10 billion to its shareholders, which is roughly half of its current market cap. The company will also invest $10 billion in growth and sustained leadership.

Few months back, the company's Board of Directors increased its share repurchase authorization by $4 billion. Also, the company launched $1.25 billion accelerated share repurchase program, and intends to hike its dividend per share by at least 10% annually through 2019.

January 19, the company announced signing of an agreement with Saint-Gobain Sekurit to establish an equally owned joint venture to develop, manufacture and sell lightweight automotive glazing solutions. The venture is expected to build manufacturing facilities to meet worldwide automotive market demand.

The company's fourth-quarter results are due to be released before the bell on Tuesday, January 26, with analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimating earnings of $0.32 per share on revenue of $2.33 billion for the quarter. Analysts' estimate typically exclude certain special items.

Corning expects its fourth-quarter LCD glass volume to be down slightly sequentially. Corning's LCD glass price declines are expected to decline less in the fourth quarter than in the third quarter. In Optical Communications, Corning expects fourth-quarter sales to increase by a low-to-mid-single-digit percentage rate over its sales in the comparable period a year ago.

In the last quarter, the company reported net income available to common stockholders of $188 million and $0.15 per share compared to the prior year's $1.01 billion and $0.72 per share. Core earnings per common share declined to $0.34 from $0.37 last year.

Net sales for the third quarter dropped to $2.27 billion from $2.54 billion in the previous year. Core net sales was $2.45 billion, down from $2.58 billion last year. Analysts expected earnings of $0.34 per share and revenues of $2.50 billion.