Key Highlights

  • Corning's third-quarter 2026 core sales were $5.08 billion, up 19% year on year, with core EPS of $0.91, up 36%.
  • Optical Communications sales rose 44% to $2.379 billion, with segment Net Income up 80%.
  • Fourth-quarter guidance is core sales of $5.2 billion to $5.3 billion and core EPS of $0.96 to $1.00.

Third-quarter results at a glance

Corning Incorporated (NYSE:GLW) reported third-quarter 2026 results on 27 October 2026. Core sales were $5.08 billion, up 19% year on year and 7% sequentially. Core Earnings Per Share were $0.91, up 36% from $0.67, while GAAP Diluted Earnings per Share rose 56% to $0.78.

Core net income was $795 million, against $585 million a year earlier. Core gross Margin was 40.5%, up 150 basis points, and core Operating Margin was 22.7%, up 310 basis points. Core return on invested Capital rose 330 basis points to 16.7%.

On a GAAP basis, sales were $4.855 billion, up 18%, and net income attributable to Corning was $680 million, up 58%. GAAP gross margin was 37.3% and GAAP operating margin was 18.8%. The gap between core and GAAP figures reflects items the company excludes from its core measures, so both sets of numbers are worth reading together.

Optical communications leads

Optical Communications sales were $2.379 billion, up 44%, with segment net income of $532 million, up 80%. The company said Enterprise Networks sales rose 84% and that sales of Gen AI products more than doubled year on year. Corning also reported signing four long-term, multibillion-dollar customer agreements during the quarter, including with Verizon and AT&T.

Other segments were mixed. Glass Innovations sales fell 3% to $1.506 billion, with net income down 10%. Automotive sales rose 4% to $470 million. Solar sales rose 37% to $436 million, but the segment recorded a net loss of $7 million, against net income of $30 million a year earlier; the company said solar output is ramping more slowly than planned. Life Sciences and Emerging Growth Businesses sales were $290 million, up 1%, with a net loss of $28 million.

Cash generation and investment

GAAP Operating Cash Flow was $1.06 billion and adjusted free cash flow was $661 million, compared with $535 million in the third quarter of 2025. Capital Expenditure was $545 million. Over the first nine months of 2026, adjusted free cash flow reached $2.27 billion, against $985 million a year earlier. Chief Financial Officer Ed Schlesinger said Corning had grown it "while investing to meet demand."

Nine-month core sales were $14.16 billion and core earnings per share were $2.40, compared with $1.81 for the same period of 2025. The nine-month figures show the third quarter built on the trend set earlier in the year.

Guidance, long-term plan and comparability

For the fourth quarter, Corning guided to core sales of $5.2 billion to $5.3 billion, up about 19%, and core earnings per share of $0.96 to $1.00, up about 36%. These are company forecasts rather than reported results. The company's Springboard plan, upgraded in May 2026, targets doubling its annualised sales run rate from $20 billion to $40 billion by the end of 2030.

Readers comparing periods should note that Corning replaced its constant-currency adjustment with an "adjustment for hedged exposures" from 1 April 2026 and did not recast prior-year figures. The company says applying the new method to 2025 would have produced higher year-on-year growth rates.

What to watch

Items to watch include whether Optical Communications growth persists, how quickly solar output ramps, and delivery against the fourth-quarter guidance.