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Corning smokes in 2Q
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July 17, 2000: 10:51 a.m. ET
Strong fiber optic, cable sales boosts profit; full-year earnings forecast raised
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Communications equipment maker Corning Inc. trounced raised second-quarter earnings forecasts Monday and increased its earnings estimates for the third time this year.
The company said strong demand for its optical fiber and cable, as well as its liquid crystal display (LCD) flat-panel glass, led to the strong results.
 For its fiscal second quarter, Corning reported earnings, excluding special items, of $271.1 million, or 94 cents a share, nearly double the $136.5 million, or 52 cents a share, it earned in the year-earlier quarter.
Analysts surveyed by earnings tracker First Call forecast earnings of 80 cents a share for the quarter. The forecasts for the quarter had been at 69 cents a share before a June 12 earnings guidance announcement from the company. The company had also raised its first-quarter estimates in March.
Also on Monday, Corning raised its full-year pro forma earnings-per-share outlook to a range of $3.15-to-$3.25 a share. The First Call forecast for the year stands at $2.92 a share.
Corning, based in the upstate New York town that shares its name, once was known primarily for kitchenwares and lab products, but now is the world's largest producer of fiber optic cable as well as other products that help carry information using light. The increasing demand for high-speed Internet connections is the prime driver of its current results, according to Roger Ackerman, its chairman and chief executive.
"We are living in an increasingly bandwidth-intensive economy and our financial performance is evidence that Corning has truly emerged as a world-leading provider of technologies and products in the optical layer, where fiber joins with photonic devices to power today's optical networks."
The company has also been growing through acquisitions, completing three deals during the second quarter, namely: IntelliSense Corp., a manufacturer of micro-electro-mechanical devices; NetOptix Corp., which produces thin film filaments; and NZ Applied Technologies, which manufacturers photonic components for optical telecommunications applications.
Including charges for amortization of purchased intangibles and goodwill, purchased in-process research and development, one-time acquisition costs, discontinued operations and other non-recurring items, net income in the period came to $149.2 million in the quarter, or 52 cents a share, compared with $131.0 million, or 50 cents a share in net income a year earlier.
Revenue rose to $1.8 billion from $1.1 billion a year earlier.
For the first six months of the year, earnings, excluding charges, rose to $459.4 million, or $1.62 a diluted share, from $234.4 million, or 90 cents a diluted share in the year-ago period. Year-to-date net income came to $226.1 million, or 80 cents a diluted share, up from $223.5 million, or 86 cents a share, in the year-earlier period, when there were fewer shares outstanding.
Revenue for the six months increased to $3.2 billion from $2.1 billion.
Shares of Corning (GLW: Research, Estimates) gained 11-1/2 to 278-1/2 in early trading Monday. 
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Corning
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