We’re buying more of our newest stock that is unfairly getting hit on earnings
Shortly after the opening bell, we will be buying 220 shares of Corning at roughly $83. Following the trade, Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust will own 440 shares of GLW, increasing its weighting to about 1% from 0.5%. Corning shares are down more than 7% in premarket trading after the specialty glass maker reported its third-quarter earnings. The results were generally better than expected, with core sales growing 14% year over year to $4.27 billion, edging the consensus forecast of $4.22 billion, and core adjusted earnings per share of $0.67, beating the consensus forecast by one penny. The company’s guidance for the fourth quarter was above expectations, too. The company forecasts fourth-quarter revenue of $4.35 billion, which is above the consensus estimate of $4.25 billion. Core adjusted earnings per share are expected to be in the range of 68 cents to 72 cents, which is better than the consensus of 67 cents. So why is the stock down? One possible reason is the magnitude of the beat. It wasn’t as strong as in recent quarters. Corning ended its two-quarter streak of core earnings per share above the high end of guidance. There might also be some disappointment in the Optical Communications segment revenue miss. Even though sales grew 33% year over year and 5% sequentially to $1.65 billion, it did not beat the consensus forecast of $1.71 billion. The initial read on this might be that Corning’s generative AI opportunity isn’t as lucrative as expected, but we disagree. The Optical Communications group is split between two main groups – carrier network (telecommunications) and enterprise network. The latter is where the big opportunity is because the company’s fiber products are increasingly used in hyperscale data centers. This is the main part of our thesis. When we hear that Optical Communication’s enterprise sales were up 58% year over year — much faster than the segment’s 33% growth — we get excited because it means momentum has continued. When we initiated this position one week ago, we intentionally started it on the smaller side to give us plenty of room to buy more shares on a pullback. We anticipated strong quarterly results, but our hesitation was around the stock’s reaction to those good numbers given the considerable run year to date. Corning shares ran from our first buy at $85 to almost $90 on Monday, and now they’re back to roughly $84 in Tuesday’s premarket. With momentum in its AI business continuing along with strong sales in its Specialty Materials segment, which makes the glass for iPhone screens, and continued execution on its Springboard plan to boost sales and margins, we are finally getting the pullback we’ve been waiting for. (Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust is long GLW, AAPL. See here for a full list of the stocks.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
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