Corning shares dropped sharply on Tuesday, even though the company reported second-quarter earnings that beat Wall Street expectations. The strong results were overshadowed by guidance that investors found disappointing.
Corning reported adjusted earnings of 78 cents per share, up from 60 cents a year ago and higher than the 76 cents analysts expected. Sales increased 17% to $4.74 billion, topping the consensus estimate of $4.63 billion.
For the current quarter, Corning expects adjusted earnings between 85 and 89 cents per share, with core sales between $4.9 billion and $5 billion. This is about the same as Wall Street’s forecast of 85 cents per share on $4.99 billion in sales, according to FactSet.
Chief executive Wendell Weeks said Corning is starting a new phase of faster growth and expects annual sales to grow by 19% each year from the fourth quarter of this year through the end of 2030. Still, investors wanted a stronger outlook, and shares fell 17% in premarket trading on Tuesday. If this drop continues, it would be the stock’s biggest single-day percentage loss since October 2002, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
Other optical networking stocks also fell with Corning. Ciena dropped 5.7%, Coherent was down 5.7%, and Lumentum fell 6%.
Wall Street was cautious about the report because Corning and similar companies have seen big gains over the past year. Corning, which makes glass and fiber-optic networking parts, is now closely linked to the broader AI infrastructure trend. Its shares are up 64% this year and about 160% over the past 12 months as of Monday’s close.
