This company is significantly undervalued. The summaries of the second quarter earnings are fundamentally incorrect. I listened to the corning 2nd quarter conference call. It was very interesting. I've been reading the summaries of the call at various financial sites: "corning had a good second quarter, but outlook for Q3-4 is modest" and "LCD TV sales will be impacted by the economy". "Associated Press: Corning 2Q profit jumps on gain; outlook is weak". I listened to the earnings conference call. At no time did Corning lower there 3Q or full year guidance. They said exactly the opposite of the AP headline. This is just sloppy and lazy reporting. If you're interested in this stock, listen for yourself. I heard - 2Q was very good and projections are consistent with 3Q and 4Q being very good. - LCD sales grow by canabalizing Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) sales, not through increased consumer spending. The bottom line is that TV sales can be flat and LCD sales can still grow. - Corning announced a $1bbn stock buy-back. Clearly, they believe the stock is a bargain. Notice, they aren't trying to prop up the stock price by raising the dividend as did PFE (stay away from that one). - Cost of raw materials (sand) have had no impact. - Historically, TVs sell well during a recession: http://www.dailytech.com/Report+TV+Shipments+in+US+Surge+28+i... "The report shows that more than 9.3 million TVs were shipped in Q2 2008. DisplaySearch says this is the strongest year-over-year growth since it began tracking TV shipments in 2004." "Shipments for 42-inch plasma TVs rose almost 86% quarter to quarter" "LCD technology gained market share quarter over quarter to rising from 77.5% to 79.8% of the total market for TVs." Also, drill into Walmarts 2Q earnings which came out after Cornings. "Wal-Mart Sales...Customers bought groceries, flat-panel televisions and video games, while apparel and home goods were ``slightly negative,'' Wal-Mart said." In general, Headline in Bloomburg Online: U.S. Economy: Retail Sales Drop for First Time in Five Months However, read on... "Today's Commerce report indicated Americans spent the cash from tax rebates on more than just gasoline. Sales at furniture stores rose 1 percent, the most since January 2007, and climbed 0.8 percent at electronics outlets." Finally, I like Wendell Weeks. Everything I've read about him is positive and my impression from the question and answer session supported this evaluation. I felt he was being honest yet positive. He also appears focused on the long term health of the company.
$21.38 (08/24/08)
