By Angela Chen
Corning Inc. said its first-quarter earnings rose 35%, though
sales in its key specialty-material segment edged up a
smaller-than-expected 4%.
Sales in the specialty-materials segment increased to $272
million. The company had expected them to increase by more than 10%
in the first quarter because of new products such as Gorilla Glass
4. However, Corning said a decline in advanced-optics sales offset
the strength of Gorilla Glass.
In the bigger display-technologies segment, Corning had sales of
$972 million, a slight increase from the year before, helped by
declining glass prices, as well as continued demand for larger LCD
television sizes. Corning relies on sales of LCD-TV glass for the
bulk of its profit.
Sales in its optical-communications segment grew 18% to $697
million because of strong demand in north America.
Overall, Corning reported a profit of $407 million, or 29 cents
a share, up from $301 million, or 20 cents a share, a year earlier.
Excluding restructuring costs and other items, core earnings
increased to 35 cents a share from 29 cents.
Revenue fell 1% to $2.27 billion, though core sales grew 4% to
$2.43 billion.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast earnings of 34
cents a share on revenue of $2.48 billion.
For the current quarter, the company expects sales in specialty
materials, life sciences, environmental technologies to be down
slightly. It expects optical communications sales to be up and LCD
glass volume up in the low single-digits.
Shares, which were up 2.8% premarket, have declined 2.4% this
year through Monday's close.
Write to Angela Chen at angela.chen@dowjones.com
Access Investor Kit for Corning, Inc.
Visit
http://www.companyspotlight.com/partner?cp_code=P479&isin=US2193501051
Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires