|
Corning profits on target
|
 |
December 14, 2000: 11:14 a.m. ET
Maker of fiber-optic cable sees profits at high end of forecasts
|
NEW YORK (CNNfn) - The stock of Corning Inc., the world's largest maker of fiber-optic cable, jumped Thursday morning after the company said that its fourth-quarter earnings would come in at the higher end of guidance it previously gave to analysts.
At its annual investors conference in New York City, Corning's newly elected chief executive officer, John Loose, outlined the company's strategy in optical fiber and photonic technologies for optical networking, and flat-panel glass for liquid crystal displays. The company also said that its fourth-quarter earnings will be at the high end of its previously stated range of 26 cents to 28 cents, and $1.15 to $1.17 per share for the full year 2000.
"Our investments in capital expansion and ongoing research and development, coupled with recent acquisitions, have positioned Corning as a world leader in optical networking," Loose said in a statement. "We believe the global appetite for Internet bandwidth and high-speed performance will continue to expand, and our products and technologies will help make that possible."
 Looking forward to next year, Corning (GLW: Research, Estimates) said it expects to earn $1.40 to $1.43 a share in 2001, with revenue increasing nearly 30 percent to about $9.1 billion. That is equal to the mean analyst forecast for 2001, according to earnings estimate tracker First Call.
In mid-morning trading, Corning's stock was up $3.25, or 4.5 percent, at $75.69.
Corning beat Wall Street estimates by a penny when it reported its third-quarter results, fueled by demand for its optical networking technologies. On Thursday, the company repeated its view that the market is poised for expansion and said that in its fourth quarter it expects year-over-year optical fiber volume growth in the range of 30 to 35 percent.
Nortel also gives bullish forecast
Corning's positive outlook comes on the same day that Nortel Networks Corp., the world's leading maker of optical networking equipment used by phone companies, gave a bullish outlook for the fourth quarter and next year. Nortel (NT: Research, Estimates) issued a statement confirming its expected performance for the fourth quarter 2000, fiscal year 2000, first quarter 2001 and fiscal year 2001.
"We continue to expect that our percentage growth in revenue and earnings per share from operations in 2000 over 1999 will be in the low 40's," said John Roth, president and CEO, in a statement. "We expect our revenue and earnings per share from operations in the fourth quarter of 2000 will be in the range of $8.5-$8.8 billion and 26 cents per share on a fully diluted basis, respectively."
"Overall, we expect continued strong growth in optical Internet, wireless Internet, local Internet and eBusiness solutions," Roth added. "We continue to expect our optical Internet revenues to grow in excess of 125 percent in 2000 over 1999, to exceed US$10 billion."
Nortel added $2 to $38.44 in mid-morning trading.
Concerns over phone company capital spending
In late October, stocks in the high-flying optical networking sector tumbled after Nortel reported third-quarter earnings that beat expectations, but turned in revenue that was lower than investors had hoped for.
 Nortel executives blamed that shortfall on customers amassing inventories amid tight supply of optical systems. That created a bottleneck in the distribution channel, which some analysts said could weigh on Nortel and the companies that supply it with the components it uses to build those systems, for several quarters.
At the time, several names in the sector suffered in sympathy with Nortel and saw shares trading lower, including Cisco (CSCO: Research, Estimates), Lucent (LU: Research, Estimates), and JDS Uniphase (JDSU: Research, Estimates). 
|
|
|
|
|
|
Corning
|
Note: Pages will open in a new browser window
External sites are not endorsed by CNNmoney
|
|
|
|
 |
|
