Citi Downgrades Corning Inc. to Hold (GLW)

Citi is out with its report today on Corning Inc.

, downgrading GLW from Buy to Hold after GLW's Investor Day. In its note to clients, Citi writes, "Although the Investor Day highlighted Corning's longer term growth opportunities, we believe that the timing for these is more likely 2012-2014 rather than 2011 for the EPS impact. We downgrade to Hold on combination of strong stock price performance (+21% YTD vs. S&P500 +4%), lack of EPS acceleration due to higher tax rate & less favorable currency rates, & exhaustion of identifiable catalysts we identified over last few months (firm panel pricing, earnings report, Investor Day, Chinese New Year) that are now built into consensus expectations. Target price edges higher mostly due to higher market multiple & a 10% discount vs. 20% prior, but not high enough to warrant a Buy." Citi raises its PT on GLW from $22.50 to $25.50. Shares of GLW are trading pre-market at $23.20, down 0.73% from Friday's close.