The Zhitong Finance App learned that Corning (GLW.US) announced the results for the third quarter of 2026 in advance of the US stock market on October 27. Core sales for the quarter were US$5.81 billion, up 19% year on year, higher than market expectations of about US$5.02 billion. The company said this was the strongest growth rate since the launch of the “20-30-40” Springboard growth plan; core earnings per share were 0.91 US dollars, up 36% year on year, and higher than the expected 0.89 US dollars. Under GAAP, net sales of $4.855 billion and diluted earnings per share of $0.78 were up 18% and 56%, respectively.
Optical communication is the main engine of growth in this period. Sales in this segment were US$2,379 million, up 44% year on year, and net profit of US$532 million, up 80%; of these, enterprise network sales increased by 84%, and sales of generative AI-related products more than doubled year on year. The company said the growth rate had surpassed the increase in GPU shipments. Optical communications currently account for approximately 47% of core sales.
The rest of the sectors showed divergent performance. Glass Innovation (combined with original display technology and specialty materials) had sales of US$1,506 million, down 3% year on year; solar sales of US$436 million, up 37%, but recorded a net loss of US$7 million due to slower than expected growth in production capacity; the automotive sector grew 4%; and the net loss of life sciences and emerging growth businesses increased to US$28 million. The company signed four new multi-billion dollar long-term customer agreements this quarter, including multi-year agreements with Verizon and AT&T.
Profitability improved simultaneously. The core gross profit margin was 40.5%, up 150 basis points from the previous year; the core operating margin was 22.7%, an increase of 310 basis points; and the return on core invested capital (ROIC) was 16.7%, an increase of 330 basis points. GAAP operating cash flow was US$1,061 million, and adjusted free cash flow was US$661 million; adjusted free cash flow for the first nine months was US$2,272 million, an increase of approximately 1.3 times over the previous year.
The company expects core sales of 5.2 billion to 5.3 billion US dollars in the fourth quarter, up about 19% year on year, and core earnings per share of 0.96 to 1.00 US dollars, up about 36% year over year, all higher than market expectations of about 5.2 billion US dollars and 0.93 US dollars. After the earnings report was announced, Corning's pre-market stock price once rose by more than 6%.