Short Interest in Corning Incorporated (NYSE:GLW) Expands By 6.6%

Corning Incorporated (NYSE:GLW) saw a significant increase in short interest in December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 10,680,000 shares, an increase of 6.6% from the November 30th total of 10,020,000 shares. Currently, 1.4% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 4,450,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.4 days.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP John P. Bayne, Jr. sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $48.39, for a total transaction of $241,950.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 6,700 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $324,213. This represents a 42.74 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP John P. Bayne, Jr. sold 8,876 shares of Corning stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $49.09, for a total value of $435,722.84. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.45% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Corning

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of GLW. FMR LLC increased its position in Corning by 52.8% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,723,044 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $168,095,000 after buying an additional 1,285,836 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Corning by 3.8% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 33,983,090 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $1,534,337,000 after acquiring an additional 1,242,718 shares in the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Corning by 215.6% in the 3rd quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 1,677,513 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $75,740,000 after purchasing an additional 1,145,955 shares during the last quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC boosted its stake in Corning by 4,306.9% in the 3rd quarter. Pathway Financial Advisers LLC now owns 1,050,463 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $47,428,000 after purchasing an additional 1,026,626 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Shellback Capital LP purchased a new stake in Corning during the 2nd quarter valued at about $34,483,000. Institutional investors own 69.80% of the company’s stock.

Corning Stock Up 0.4 %

NYSE GLW opened at $47.52 on Thursday. Corning has a 1 year low of $29.71 and a 1 year high of $51.03. The stock has a market capitalization of $40.69 billion, a PE ratio of 279.53, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 1.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 1.66 and a quick ratio of 1.05. The business’s 50-day moving average is $47.92 and its 200 day moving average is $44.36.

Corning (NYSE:GLW) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The electronics maker reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.01. Corning had a return on equity of 13.45% and a net margin of 1.24%. The company had revenue of $3.39 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.72 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.45 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 6.9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Corning will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GLW has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Oppenheimer reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $58.00 target price (up from $51.00) on shares of Corning in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Corning from $39.00 to $48.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on Corning from $55.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 30th. UBS Group raised their price target on Corning from $46.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of Corning from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 24th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and ten have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $50.77.

About Corning

Corning Incorporated engages in the display technologies, optical communications, environmental technologies, specialty materials, and life sciences businesses in the United States and internationally. The company's Display Technologies segment offers glass substrates for flat panel displays, including liquid crystal displays and organic light-emitting diodes that are used in televisions, notebook computers, desktop monitors, tablets, and handheld devices.