One-glance verdict
Overvalued
$35.25 our estimate vs market $144.13
Wall Street consensus: $191.40 (443.0% higher than our fair-value estimate)
309% above our estimate, beyond the bull case
Fundamentals snapshot
Corning Incorporated
GLW · NYQ · Technology · Electronic Components
Current price
$144.13
52-week range
$69.39 - $271.78
Market cap
$124.15B
Balance sheet
Watch
6.78x Adequate
Net debt $6.88B. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
3 Rewards
2 Risks
3 rewards · 2 risks
- Reward Revenue grew 4.4% last year.
- Reward Returns 16.8% on equity, ahead of 16% of its peers.
- Risk Stock trades 37.3% above its 5-year average P/E.
- Risk Net debt grew 27.7% over 3 years.
What this company does
Corning Incorporated
Corning is a materials science company that makes the high-tech glass and ceramics inside many popular products, from the durable screens on smartphones to the optical fiber that powers the internet. The company makes most of its money selling these essential components to large manufacturers in the electronics and communications industries. This means Corning's success is closely tied to the global demand for new gadgets and the expansion of faster internet networks.
How the company got here
Founded in 1851 as a glassmaker, Corning has a long history of game-changing inventions. The company first made a name for itself by creating the glass for Thomas Edison's light bulb. Over the years, it developed well-known consumer products like Pyrex and CorningWare, though it later sold those brands to focus on industrial and scientific applications. A major turning point came in 2007 when Apple asked Corning to create a durable glass for the first iPhone, leading to the creation of Gorilla Glass. This success solidified Corning's reputation as a leader in specialty glass and materials science.
What it actually does
Corning is a materials science company that creates specialty glass, ceramics, and related technologies for other businesses. You might not buy products directly from Corning, but you likely use them every day. For example, the tough, scratch-resistant glass on your smartphone, called Gorilla Glass, is made by Corning. They also produce the optical fiber that makes high-speed internet possible, glass for large-screen TVs, and components for scientific labs and vehicles.
Optical Communications
This is Corning's largest business segment, making up the biggest piece of its sales. It manufactures optical fiber and cables, which are the backbone of the internet, allowing data to travel long distances at high speeds. Customers are typically large telecommunications companies, internet service providers, and other businesses building out their data networks. Essentially, this division provides the physical infrastructure that keeps the world connected.
Display Technologies
This part of the company makes very thin, high-quality glass that is used in flat-panel displays for televisions, computer monitors, and laptops. Corning is a leading supplier to the manufacturers of these large screens. While a significant part of their business, the demand for these products can go up and down with the consumer electronics market.
Specialty Materials
This segment is famous for producing Corning® Gorilla® Glass, the durable cover glass used on many smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices. It also creates advanced materials for a variety of other industries, including aerospace, defense, and semiconductor manufacturing. This business is driven by the constant need for tougher, more specialized materials in high-tech applications.
Environmental Technologies
This division focuses on creating ceramic products that help control vehicle emissions. They make substrates and filters that are key components in catalytic converters for cars and trucks. Their customers are companies that build emission control systems, who then sell to major auto manufacturers worldwide. As environmental regulations become stricter, the demand for these products continues.
Life Sciences
This segment provides a wide range of products for scientific research and drug discovery. You'll find Corning's plastic and glass labware, such as petri dishes and test tubes under brand names like Pyrex, Falcon, and Axygen, in laboratories around the world. Their customers include pharmaceutical companies, research institutions, and hospitals.
What management is betting on now
Corning's strategy focuses on inventing new, category-defining products by combining its expertise in glass science, ceramics, and optical physics. The company aims to grow by finding new applications for its core technologies in markets like mobile electronics, automotive, and life sciences. They often partner with industry leaders to create custom solutions, which helps ensure demand for their new products. A key part of their plan is to increase their operating margin (the profit they make on each dollar of sales before interest and taxes) and to return money to shareholders through dividends (a portion of profits paid out to investors) and share buybacks (when a company buys its own stock to reduce the number of shares available).
Price history
How the share price has moved
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Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
FY2024 Q2
$279.00M
FY2024 Q3
$482.00M
FY2024 Q4
$369.00M
FY2025 Q1
$-57.00M
FY2025 Q2
$400.00M
FY2025 Q3
$450.00M
FY2025 Q4
$620.00M
FY2026 Q1
$30.00M
Revenue
$4.14B
Net income
$371.00M
Diluted EPS
0.43
Operating cash flow
$362.00M
Free cash flow
$30.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$4.21B
Net income
$540.00M
Diluted EPS
0.61
Operating cash flow
$1.05B
Free cash flow
$620.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$4.10B
Net income
$430.00M
Diluted EPS
0.50
Operating cash flow
$784.00M
Free cash flow
$450.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$3.86B
Net income
$469.00M
Diluted EPS
0.54
Operating cash flow
$708.00M
Free cash flow
$400.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$3.45B
Net income
$157.00M
Diluted EPS
0.18
Operating cash flow
$151.00M
Free cash flow
$-57.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$3.50B
Net income
$310.00M
Diluted EPS
0.36
Operating cash flow
$623.00M
Free cash flow
$369.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$3.39B
Net income
$-117.00M
Diluted EPS
-0.14
Operating cash flow
$699.00M
Free cash flow
$482.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$3.25B
Net income
$104.00M
Diluted EPS
0.12
Operating cash flow
$521.00M
Free cash flow
$279.00M
Fetching…
Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $35.25 vs current price $144.13
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $191.40 (443.0% higher than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $35.25 a share — about 75.5% below today's price of $144.13, so the stock currently looks expensive (overvalued).
Is it drowning in debt?
Watch
Net debt $6.9B. Interest coverage 6.8x.
Net debt
$6.88B
Interest coverage
6.78x
Corning Incorporated's profit covers its interest bill about 6.8 times over.
Watch
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
GLW
BASELINE
Corning Incorporated
Total debt $9.38B Interest coverage 6.78x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $18.81B Interest coverage 16.24x +139% vs GLW Carries about 2.4x more debt cushion than GLW.
Total debt $7.35B Interest coverage 31.49x +364% vs GLW Carries about 4.6x more debt cushion than GLW.
Total debt $13.16B Interest coverage 5.06x -25% vs GLW Carries about 1.3x less debt cushion than GLW.
Total debt $1.67B Interest coverage 24.60x +263% vs GLW Carries about 3.6x more debt cushion than GLW.
Total debt $5.82B Interest coverage 43.95x +548% vs GLW Carries about 6.5x more debt cushion than GLW.
What you should know
The case for and against GLW
3 Rewards
2 Risks
Rewards
-
Revenue grew 4.4% last year.
-
Returns 16.8% on equity, ahead of 16% of its peers.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 8/10 years.
Risks
-
Stock trades 37.3% above its 5-year average P/E.
-
Net debt grew 27.7% over 3 years.
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
67.04x
Forward P/E
33.36x
P/B
10.40x
P/S
7.32x
EV/EBITDA
32.21x
PEG ratio
0.87x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
36.4%
Operating margin
15.6%
Net margin
11.2%
ROE
16.8%
ROA
5.4%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
0.71x
Current ratio
1.81x
Quick ratio
0.98x
Total debt
$9.38B
Total cash
$2.50B
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$16.32B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
2.6%
EPS TTM
2.15
EPS 5Y CAGR
5.9%
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$2.91B
Free CF TTM
$1.41B
FCF margin
8.7%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
0.8%
Payout ratio
51.6%
Last ex-div date
2026-08-31