Corning Profit Surges - Update

(RTTNews) - Specialty glass maker Corning Inc (GLW), Tuesday reported a surge in profit for the third-quarter, helped mainly by growth in display technologies and environment technologies segments, with results topping Wall Street estimates.

Corning shares gained about 3 percent in morning trade on the New York Stock Exchange, following the announcement.

The company said its core sales in display technologies segment for the quarter surged 62 percent year-over-year, led partly by growth in LCD glass volume.

LCD glass volume was up in high single digits sequentially, driven by retail sales of TVs and supply chain preparations for the upcoming holiday season, but prices moderated. Core sales at environmental technologies segment rose 25 percent from a year ago, and optical communications segment rose 7 percent. Core sales for life sciences segment was almost even with last year.

The Corning, New York-based company posted quarterly net earnings of $1.01 billion or $0.72 per share, compared with $408 million or $0.28 per share last year.

Excluding items, core earnings for the quarter were $0.40 per share, compared with $0.33 per share a year ago. On average, 13 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings of $0.37 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Sales for the quarter were up 23 percent at $2.54 billion, compared with $2.07 billion in the prior year.

Core sales rose 26 percent to $2.65 billion from $2.11 billion last year, topping analysts' estimates of $2.63 billion.

For the fourth quarter, Corning expects LCD glass volume to be even-to-down slightly from the previous quarter, and in line or slightly better than the overall glass market volume. Sequentially, the company anticipates LCD glass price declines will be more moderate.

For the full year, Corning expects the global LCD glass retail market to grow 10 percent.

Corning stock is trading at $19.37, up $0.52 or 2.76%, on a volume of 8.9 million shares.