Gorilla Glass a Reason to 'Buy' Corning?
Shares of Gorilla Glass maker Corning (NYSE:GLW) climbed about 1% Monday morning after the telecom equipment maker was handed upgrades on the heels of two upbeat analyst notes.
Barclays (NYSE:BCS) lifted Corning to “overweight” from “equalweight,” while Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) raised the maker of display technologies to “equalweight” from “underweight.”
Morgan Stanley raised its 2013 outlook on Corning’s Gorilla Glass sales to $1.37 billion, which would mark a 31% year-over-year improvement from the 2012 period as smartphone sizes creep higher and touch notebook sales improve. The extra-tough glass is used by Samsung for its popular suite of Galaxy devices.
The brokerage calls it a "risk-reward view," noting: "Touch notebooks lift Gorilla demand in 2013, but the display business continues to shrink with a 2015 reset on the Yen hedges rolling off."
Corning last month upped its quarterly dividend by 11% and unveiled a $2 billion buyback program after posting stronger-than-expected first-quarter earnings despite slightly disappointing revenue.
Corning CEO Wendell Weeks at the time said he believed the future for the maker of glass for flat-panel televisions “is very bright,” its results “improving.”
Shares of the Corning, N.Y.-based company edged up about 1% in recent trade to $15.22 after touching an intraday 52-week high of $15.49 earlier in the session.