Corning Reports First-Quarter 2024 Financial Results

CORNING, N.Y. , April 30 /Businesswire/ - Corning Incorporated (NYSE: GLW) today announced its first-quarter 2024 results and provided its outlook for second-quarter 2024.

Wendell P. Weeks, chairman and chief executive officer, said, “Our first-quarter results were at the high end of our guidance. Importantly, we’re seeing encouraging signs of improving market conditions. We continue to expect that the first quarter will be the low quarter for the year.”

Weeks continued, “We are executing our plans to add more than $3 billion in annualized sales within the next three years, and we already have the required capacity and capabilities in place. As a result, we are poised to deliver powerful incremental profit and cash flow and generate substantial shareholder value.”

First-Quarter 2024 Financial Highlights:

• GAAP sales were $2.98 billion. Core sales were $3.26 billion. Year over year, GAAP and core sales declined by 6% and 3%, respectively.
• Profitability improved despite the lower sales, reflecting the continued benefit of pricing and productivity improvement actions. Year over year, GAAP gross margin improved by 180 basis points and core gross margin improved by 160 basis points.
• GAAP EPS was $0.24, and core EPS was $0.38. The difference between GAAP and core EPS primarily reflected constant-currency adjustments, translated earnings contract gains, and translation gains on Japanese-yen-denominated debt.
• GAAP operating cash flow was $96 million, and adjusted free cash flow was $(62) million – both significantly improved versus the first quarter of 2023.

Second-Quarter 2024 Outlook:

• For the second quarter, management expects core sales to grow to approximately $3.4 billion, with core EPS in the range of $0.42 to $0.46.

Ed Schlesinger, executive vice president and chief financial officer, said, “Our actions to increase price and improve our productivity ratios are paying off. In the first quarter, despite lower year-over-year core sales, we grew core gross margin by 160 basis points. We also grew adjusted free cash flow by more than $300 million versus the first quarter of 2023.”

Schlesinger continued, “Overall, we have established a significantly stronger profitability and cash flow base, and we expect to grow from first-quarter levels. In the second quarter, we expect core sales of approximately $3.4 billion, with core EPS in the range of $0.42 to $0.46.”

Strategy in Action

Corning strives to be a catalyst for positive change and to help move the world forward. The company drives profitable multiyear growth by inventing, making, and selling life-changing products while cultivating deep, trust-based relationships with industry leaders, ultimately incorporating more content into customers’ offerings. Corning takes the long view, investing in a set of vital capabilities that are increasingly relevant to profound transformations that touch many facets of daily life. Today, Corning’s markets include optical communications, mobile consumer electronics, display, automotive, solar, semiconductor, and life sciences.

Recent highlights include:

• Advancing “More Corning” content opportunities by helping automakers meet ever-tightening pollution standards to produce cleaner vehicles. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s final multipollutant tailpipe emissions standards for cars and trucks, announced in March, include a strong particulate emissions limit that will require the deployment of gasoline particulate filters in the U.S. for all gasoline vehicles, including hybrids, beginning in 2027. Corning is the inventor of and clear market leader in GPFs, and the new regulations add two to three times the opportunity for emissions-control content in gasoline vehicles, including hybrids.

• Innovating to enable faster deployments and higher-density solutions needed for fiber-rich networks supporting growth in broadband, 5G, and generative AI. Corning introduced RocketRibbon® cable with Flow Ribbon Technology, featuring a 60% reduction in cable diameter. Smaller, denser cables are ideal for solving the AI-driven infrastructure challenges of carrier and data center customers. Corning also launched its latest connectivity advancement, Multifiber Pushlok™ Technology, with innovative features that make it faster, easier, and up to $25 less expensive per home to deploy optical fiber and expand broadband access. In related media coverage, a recent CBS News “60 Minutes” segment featuring U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and Corning Chairman and CEO Wendell P. Weeks spotlighted Corning’s collaboration with the White House to bring high-speed internet to underserved rural communities as part of the Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) program. The industry expects funding approvals to begin late this year, leading to spending in 2025. Corning anticipates BEAD-related projects will add significantly to the company’s addressable market.

In Optical Communications, first-quarter sales were $930 million, up 3% sequentially, driven by growing sales in carrier and enterprise. Sales were down 17% year over year, reflecting temporarily lower carrier demand as customers continued to draw down inventory. First-quarter net income was $100 million, down 37% year over year, reflecting the lower volume.

In Display Technologies, first-quarter sales were $872 million, up 14% year over year, and net income was $201 million, up 26% year over year, driven by higher volume and pricing actions taken in the second half of 2023.

In Specialty Materials, first-quarter sales were $454 million, up 12% year over year, driven by continued strong demand for premium smartphone cover materials and semiconductor-related products. First-quarter net income was $44 million, up 13% year over year, driven by higher volume.

In Environmental Technologies, first-quarter sales were $455 million, up 6% year over year, driven by increased gasoline particulate filter adoption in China, which more than offset a decline in heavy-duty diesel in North America. Net income was $105 million, up 28% year over year, driven by higher volume and improved operating performance.

In Life Sciences, first-quarter sales were $236 million, down 8% year over year, as customers in North America and Europe continue to draw down their inventory. Net income was $13 million, up 44% year over year, reflecting improved productivity.

Hemlock and Emerging Growth Businesses
		Q1 2024			Q4 2023			Q1 2023			Q/Q			Y/Y
Net Sales		$311			$356			$386			(13%)			(19%)
Net (Loss) Income		$(10)			$(19)			$16			47%			*
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