Analysis Corning (GLW) update May 1st, 2023
Not updated Anymore!
Corning is a high tech material science company with about 13 bn$ annual revenues. It is focused on glass materials. Corning`s business fields display technologies - the glass cover for computer and TV screens, optical communication - glas fibres for data transport, specialty materials - the glass cover for mobile phones (gorilla glas), environmental technologies - particle filters for automobiles and pharmaceutical glass soon... is high tech.
A motivation to buy Corning is the large share of business in Asia with its innovation and growth potential of its high tech businesses of perhaps >5% /year.
This is not a recommendation or proposal to do anything. The data written in this article is not guarranteed. It is my private personal opinion. I`m not independing as I own a position of Corning shares.
Chances & Risks
In Q4/22 and Q1/23 the sales and as well net income of the display division plunged due to lower sales of computers, smart phones and other devices.
The results of the 8 quarters before were strong after a weak H1/20. GLW profited from having most of its production and sales in Asia that recovered best from covid-19 panic. As Corning has a high capex and fixed costs that let its earnings strongly fluctuate. The strong business situation is visible in the numbers. The dividend is getting increased to 28c/share/quarter.
GLW usually faces significant fluctuations in its business. The business did stagnate more than it grew in the last couple of years.
Based on an earning estimate of 1.5$/share a share price of 35$ the PE is 23. It is expensive for this business model.
A concern is the dependency on China as the main direct customers are situated in China. The television industry where the displays are delivered is as well as the mobile device assembling is situated in China. The means a trade war or a disconnection of the super powers could damage GLW. On the other side the customers of TV sets, mobile phones mobile phones are dispersed all over the world.
The technologies of Corning require a high capital deployment. It seems to cost plenty of capex to build new plants for gorilla glas, glas fibres and particle filters. Corning has assets of 29 bn. $ and a capex of 1.4 - 2 bn$ (2018 - 2022). On the other hand it has a gross margin of 40%. Such a capex intensive business has the advantage that if the company makes a good decision at the right time, to have the right product and capacity at the right timing it can earn a lot if not ... The high capital employment costs flexibility. The net income is subject to significant fluctuations.
Corning as a US entity selling technology to a mostly chinese market might get in the focus of the US vs. China rivalty. Such products like gorilla glas delivered by a US company to mostly chinese mobile phone assembly manufacturers, glas fibres for communication and cover glasses for TV and computer screens might become a target. The chinese state planners might focus on it. It seems likely that China and chinese companies will move in this markets and will build up excessive capacities to grab these markets.
There are 2 substantial innovations from Corning pressing in the market
-The marketing of the very light, scratch resistant Gorilla glas in the automobile industry. I assume it will find a market in premium and electrical automobiles.
- Its new line of pharmaceutical glass packaging named Valor Glass. Valor Glass, if Corning's scientists are to be believed, "substantially reduces particle contamination, breaks and cracks, while significantly increasing throughput" of prescription drugs in glass packaging. The pharmaceutical market is a very slow market due to certification requirements and FDA (Corning got FDA approval(11)) approvals. Its main competitors Schott and Gerresheimer are well established. Hence it will requires many years to achieve a significant share of this market.
It is assumed that these innovations have the potential of making bn$ in additional revenues each and it is only partly compensated by a commodization of existing business.
Some observations
It seems as the growing gorilla glas business is the most promising business of GLW.
The Display glass market is dominated by 3 competitors, Corning 48% share, Asahi 24%, Nippon Electric Glass 23% (1). Actually LCD displays are mostly replaced by OLED displays. A new market are Samsung foldable OLED. These displays use Polyimide material instead of glass!
The brand for the LCD glas is Eagle XG, for OLED Astra.$
News
2021/12/24 Corning is increasing its production capacity for pharmazeutical glas to 500 M/yr. (14)
Some Data
Number of shares: Issued 1,800 mio., treasury, 859 M. outstanding shares Q1/2023
Total Assets: 29 bn$ (Q4/22) = 32$/outstanding share
Some Numbers
It seems that the business fields Optical Communication lost most of its profitability.
Major Shareholders from Market Screener 21.05.19
Name %
The Vanguard Group, Inc. 7.58%
T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. 5.53%
BlackRock Fund Advisors 4.66%
SSgA Funds Management, Inc. 4.48%
State Farm Investment Management Corp. 2.25%
PRIMECAP Management Co. 2.01%
Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC 1.65%
Lyrical Asset Management LP 1.53%
LSV Asset Management 1.41%
Geode Capital Management LLC 1.24%
Corning is mainly influenced by the big asset managers.
Some references
(14) 2021/12/24 https://www.zacks.com/stock/news/1841694/corning-glw-accelerates-vial-manufacturing-at-durham-facility
(12) 2019/10/29 https://s22.q4cdn.com/662497847/files/doc_financials/2019/q3/2019-10-29-Q3-2019-Earnings-FINAL-with-appendix.pdf
(11) 2019/10/25 https://seekingalpha.com/news/3509738-cornings-valor-glass-draws-fda-packaging-approval
(10) 2019/09/17 https://seekingalpha.com/news/3499666-corning-cuts-sales-outlook-optical-display-units?dr=1#email_link
(9) 2019/07/31 https://seekingalpha.com/filing/4581731
(8) 2019/07/17 https://seekingalpha.com/news/3478486-corning-announces-5b-buyback?dr=1#email_link
(7) 2019/05/21 https://www.marketscreener.com/CORNING-INCORPORATED-12788/company/
(6) 2019/4/30 https://seekingalpha.com/filing/4461395
(5) 2019/4/26 https://seekingalpha.com/article/4256921-corning-displays-helped-tailwinds-2019?dr=1
(4) 2019/3/26 https://seekingalpha.com/news/3445427-corning-opens-new-montreal-r-and-d-center-telecom?app=1&dr=1#email_link
(3) 2019/2/06 https://seekingalpha.com/news/3430223-corning-declares-0_20-dividend?app=1&dr=1#email_link
(2) 2019/1/29 https://seekingalpha.com/pr/17394058-corning-reports-excellent-fourth-quarter-full-year-2018-financial-results-continued-progress
(1) 2018/11/28 https://seekingalpha.com/article/4225161-corning-overcoming-headwinds-display-mobile?app=1&dr=1
2018/11/28 https://seekingalpha.com/article/4225225-corning-unique-company-playing-multiple-growth-markets?app=1&dr=1
2018/10 https://www.fool.com/investing/2018/10/23/cornings-growth-accelerates-as-investments-begin-t.aspx
https://seekingalpha.com/article/4208689-henkel-value-underfollowed-european-giant?app=1&dr=1
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