Corning Posts Upbeat Q1 Earnings, But Revenue Misses Estimates

reported better-than-expected earnings for its first quarter, but the company's revenue misses analysts' expectations. The Corning, New York-based company reported a quarterly profit of $407 million, or $0.29 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $301 million, or $0.20 per share. Excluding items, the company's core earnings climbed to $0.35 per share from $0.29 per share. Its revenue slipped 1 percent to $2.27 billion, while core sales gained 4 percent to $2.43 billion. Analysts were expecting a profit of $0.34 per share on revenue of $2.48 billion. Sales in Corning's specialty-materials segment rose 4 percent to $272 million, while sales in its display-technologies segment rose slightly to $972 million. Sales in the company's optical-communications segment climbed 18 percent to $697 million, while sales in environmental technologies segment rose to $282 million from $275 million. In the first quarter, the company repurchased 21 million shares for around $500 million. The average estimate among 20 Estimize users was for earnings of $0.35 per share and revenue of $2.5 billion. "We are off to an excellent start in 2015," Wendell P. Weeks, chairman, chief executive officer and president, said. "In the first quarter, we benefited from the company`s business diversity with core sales growing in four of five segments." Corning projects sales in specialty materials segment to drop by a mid-single digit percentage in the current quarter on a year-over-year basis. It also projects sales in optical communications to gain by a mid-teen percentage. Corning projects its LCD glass volume to rise by a low single-digit percentage sequentially. Corning shares gained 1.43 percent to $22.70 in pre-market trading.