Benzinga | Jul 27, 2021 11:13AM EDT

Corning Beats On Q2 Earnings, Posts Strong Segmental Growth And Margin Expansion, Issues Q3 Guidance

* Corning Inc (NYSE:GLW) reported second-quarter FY21 core sales growth of 35% year-on-year to $3.5 billion, surpassing the analyst consensus of $3.4 billion.

* Display Technologies sales grew 25% Y/Y to $939 million as it raised the glass substrate prices in Q2 and an additional moderate price increase for Q3.

* Optical Communications sales rose 21% Y/Y to $1.1 billion as the sales increased in both enterprise and carrier networks. 5G, fiber-to-the-home, and cloud computing continue to drive strong growth across the segment.

* Specialty Materials sales improved 16% Y/Y to $483 million from solid demand for premium cover materials, strength in the IT market, and greater optical content in semiconductor manufacturing.

* Environmental Technologies sales increased 80% Y/Y to $407 million driven by improving markets and More Corning content.

* Life Sciences sales rose 28% Y/Y to $312 million.

* The gross margin expanded 200 basis points Q/Q to 37.8%.

* The operating margin expanded 120 basis points Q/Q to 18.3%.

* Core EPS of $0.53 beat the analyst consensus of $0.51.

* The company added almost $1 billion in sales Y/Y and a half billion in sales over pre-pandemic levels, improved margins Y/Y and Q/Q, contributing to solid EPS, and generated significant operating and free cash flow in Q2. It expects the momentum to continue.

* Outlook: The company sees Q3 core sales of $3.5 billion - $3.7 billion versus the analyst consensus of $3.53 billion.

* It sees core EPS of $0.54 - $0.59, compared to the analyst consensus of $0.57.

* Price action: GLW shares traded higher by 0.95% at $41.45 in the premarket session on the last check Tuesday.