Published: Wednesday, January 28, 2026 · 5:30 PM | Updated: Wednesday, January 28, 2026 · 5:30 PM
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Corning on Wednesday reported a beat on both the top and bottom lines, in addition to strong cash flow performance. The stock, not surprisingly, dropped more than 4% after Tuesday’s monster rally on the Meta Platforms data center order. Core revenue in Corning’s fourth quarter ending Dec. 31 rose 13.9% year over year to $4.4 billion, topping the consensus estimate of $4.35 billion, according to market data service LSEG. Adjusted earnings per share rose nearly 7.5% to 72 cents, a penny ahead of expectations, according to LSEG. If there was a slight quarterly ding, it was on operating margin performance. It came up a tad short of expectations in Q4 at 20.2%. However, it still represented strong year-over-year expansion. That enabled management to hit its year-end 2026 target for 20% operating margin, a full year early. Why we own it Corning makes different types of specialty glass, including fiber optic cables. Corning’s fiber optics solutions provide a more efficient alternative to the copper wiring found in data centers. The company is also a huge supplier to Apple and makes the glass used in iPhones, Watches, and other Apple devices. Competitors : Ciena , Amphenol , Lumentum , Thermo Fisher Scientific (in copper and life sciences) Most recent buy: Nov. 20, 2025 Initiated : Oct, 21, 2025 Bottom line As strong as Corning’s quarterly results were, profit-takers were stepping in. That’s nothing to worry about, given the stock’s surge of 15.6% on Tuesday following Meta’s agreement to spend up to $6 billion on Corning’s fiber-optic data center cabling. Speaking on CNBC on Wednesday morning, Corning CEO Wendell Weeks said that the maker of high-tech glass products is in the process of completing several other agreements of the same scale and duration as the Meta agreement. On the post-earnings conference call, Weeks added, “Meta will serve as the anchor customer for the expansion and upgrading of our manufacturing and technology capabilities across our operations in North Carolina. We are concluding similar long-term agreements with other major customers to dedicate capacity for them as well. Taken together, these agreements enable Corning to provide our customers with secure U.S.-origin production of our most advanced Gen AI high-density innovations.” GLW 1Y mountain Corning 1 year While critics may see these deals as circular investing, Weeks said the agreements are designed so that Corning can appropriately share the risk. Corning provides the supply assurances in exchange for demand assurances and the cost of expansions. As noted on the call, Weeks said these deals “include components like customer prepayments and stringent long-term customer commitments to provide revenue assurance for long-time followers of Corning.” To us, that seems perfectly reasonable and helps to address any concerns about overbuilding – which is understandable because normally a company decides to expand its manufacturing footprint ahead of anticipated demand that could fail to materialize. The CEO said the deals, like the one with Meta, are in line with past agreements made with display customers, including the recently announced $2.5 billion arrangement with Apple for iPhone and Apple Watch glass. Looking ahead, it is clear that Corning is dead set on being the replacement for copper when it comes to networking and is working diligently to innovate products to make that possible. For example, Weeks told CNBC on Wednesday that Corning’s new fiber offering is far denser than past offerings, allowing for double the connections in the same space, at a lower cost, more reliably, and with better performance. Corning appears to be firing on all cylinders. While the Apple news was certainly exciting, we think the news coming out now on data center cabling, along with the foreshadowing of more such deals in the future, points to a stock that, despite more than doubling over the past 12 months and rallying more than 20% to start 2026, has more upside ahead. Against that backdrop, we are reiterating our buy-equivalent 1 rating, though we encourage members to be patient here and let the stock settle down a bit, given Tuesday’s huge move. We are also increasing our price target to $125 per share from $95. Recognition of Corning as a major data center play has been at the core of our investment thesis. During Wednesday’s Morning Meeting, Jim Cramer said he would love own more Corning. Guidance For the current quarter, management forecasts an acceleration in year-over-year core sales growth to a 15% rate, resulting in revenue guidance of $4.2 to $4.3 billion, slightly better than the $4.23 billion estimate according to LSEG. Core earnings are expected to be between 66 cents and 70 cents per share, ahead of the 66-cent LSEG compiled estimate. As for Corning’s Springboard plan, which was designed to drive revenue higher, management updated its targets, with the internal plan now calling for $6.5 billion in incremental sales by year-end, up from the previously forecast $6 billion. The so-called high-confidence scenario from the team, which it thinks analysts should use for their financial models, was increased to $5.75 billion, up from $4 billion previously. Longer-term, the internal plan now calls for $11 billion incremental annualized sales by the end of 2028, up from the prior $8 billion target. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long GLW, META, AAPL. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
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