UPDATE: Corning Q3 Earnings Beat Estimates

Corning GLW reported better-than-expected earnings for the third quarter. The Corning, New York-based company reported a quarterly profit of $1.01 billion, or $0.72 per share, versus a year-ago profit of $408 million, or $0.28 per share. Excluding special items, the company's core earnings rose to $0.40 per share from $0.33 per share. Its sales climbed to $2.54 billion versus $2.07 billion, while core sales increased 26% to $2.65 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.37 per share on revenue of $2.63 billion. Core sales in its display-technologies segment climbed 62% to $1.1 billion, while core sales for its specialty-materials segment came in at $327 million. Core sales in its environmental technologies segment climbed 25% to $282 million, while core sales in optical communications segment gained 7% to $698 million. Its cost of sales rose 24% in the quarter. In the quarter, the company repurchased 9.6 million shares for around $200 million. The company ended the quarter with $6.1 billion in cash and short-term investments. "Our strong third-quarter performance marked two full years of year-over-year quarterly earnings growth, a significant accomplishment for Corning. We had record earnings in our Environmental Technologies segment, healthy demand for our Optical Communications solutions, and solid results in Display Technologies with the Corning Precision Materials integration providing significant synergies," said Wendell P. Weeks, chairman, chief executive officer and president. For the fourth quarter, Corning LCD glass volume is projected to be even-to-down slightly versus the prior quarter, and in line or slightly better than the overall glass market volume. Corning projects the global LCD glass retail market to rose 10% for the full year. Corning shares fell 3.98% to $18.10 in pre-market trading.