Corning Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:GLW)

Corning Incorporated (NYSE:GLW) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Traders acquired 23,283 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 53% compared to the typical daily volume of 15,226 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GLW has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Corning from $45.00 to $51.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, July 12th. Mizuho upgraded shares of Corning from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $44.00 to $47.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 21st. Argus lifted their price objective on Corning from $40.00 to $50.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $39.00 target price on shares of Corning in a research report on Friday, July 26th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on Corning from $46.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $47.23.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Corning by 9.0% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 31,312,779 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $953,474,000 after acquiring an additional 2,597,878 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in Corning by 35.1% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 17,200,828 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $566,941,000 after buying an additional 4,464,893 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Corning by 4.3% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 10,342,949 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $401,826,000 after buying an additional 426,864 shares during the last quarter. FIL Ltd grew its position in shares of Corning by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 7,179,283 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $218,609,000 after buying an additional 105,994 shares during the period. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Corning by 41.7% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 6,212,356 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $189,166,000 after acquiring an additional 1,828,097 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 69.80% of the company’s stock.

Corning Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE GLW opened at $46.73 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 65.82, a PEG ratio of 1.73 and a beta of 1.04. Corning has a one year low of $25.26 and a one year high of $47.45. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $41.94 and a 200 day simple moving average of $38.60. The company has a current ratio of 1.57, a quick ratio of 0.98 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63.

Corning (NYSE:GLW) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 30th. The electronics maker reported $0.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46 by $0.01. Corning had a return on equity of 12.69% and a net margin of 3.53%. The company had revenue of $3.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.55 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.45 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Corning will post 1.91 EPS for the current year.

Corning Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, December 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 15th will be paid a $0.28 dividend. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.40%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 15th. Corning’s dividend payout ratio is presently 157.75%.

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.