Net income includes charges of $141 million, or 9 cents per share, much of it related to settlement of asbestos litigation involving Pittsburgh Corning Corp.Corning's profit of 20 cents a share beat the consensus forecast of 18 cents a share among analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.Corning (Corning, N.Y.) reported sales of $415 million in its Display Technologies segment, a 30-percent sequential increase over first-quarter sales of $320 million and 50-percent increase over year-ago sales of $277 million.The company attributed the strong performance to robust demand for liquid crystal display glass substrates for flat-panel monitors and TVs.
Our second-quarter sales of glass substrates was larger than our total Display Technologies segment sales for 2002, said Wendell Weeks, president and chief executive of Corning, in a statement.
On the negative side, sales in Cornings Telecommunications segment declined 3 percent sequentially to $415 million from $427 million the first quarter, which Corning attributed to lower sales of fiber-to-the-premises hardware and equipment sales.
Corning projects third-quarter sales of $1.14 billion to $1.19 billion, with pro-forma earnings of 20 to 22 cents per share.
Strong LCD glass sales boost Corning profit
Electronic materials and components supplier Corning Inc. posted second quarter earnings of $165 million, or 11 cents per share on sales of $1.1 billion, up from $108 million, or 8 cents per share on sales of $971 million in the year-ago quarter.