Corning sinks after posting underwhelming Q2 guidance, despite Q1 beat
Corning reported Q1 results before the bell on Tuesday that beat Wall Street’s expectations, but shares still fell from the company’s softer second-quarter guidance.
For the first quarter, Corning reported:
Non-GAAP core earnings per share of $0.70, just beating consensus analyst expectations of $0.69, according to FactSet.
Core sales of $4.34 billion vs. a $4.30 billion consensus estimate from analysts.
The fly in the Corning ointment was the outlook for Q2 2026. The maker of fiber-optic networking equipment now expects core sales to grow to approximately $4.6 billion, slightly lower than $4.65 billion forecast by analysts. Core EPS is expected to reach a range of $0.73 to $0.77, largely in line with the $0.75 Wall Street consensus.
Management highlighted the company’s “powerful momentum across our Market-Access Platforms,” or five fast-growing industries ranging from optics to mobile consumer electronics, but also noted that an additional $30 million of expense is expected in the second quarter compared to the first, as it upgrades and repairs its solar wafer facility to a “permanent power system.”
After such a hot run, with the stock up 85% so far this year, it’s no wonder that it’s taking a breather on results that don’t give analysts enough excuses to meaningfully bump their forecasts.
Indeed, Corning is one of a number of fiber-optic networking stocks — including Lumentum, Coherent, and Ciena Corp. — that have soared this year. They all handle slightly different aspects of the same undertaking: using light and electrical signals to almost instantly transfer the data that AI technology both consumes and produces.
Demand for their products has jumped as AI’s requirements for bandwidth, speed, and power have moved beyond the capacity of long-standing networking technologies, such as the copper cables that usually carry signals using electricity.
