Corning Stock Is Up 311% Over the Past Year. Is It a Buy in 2026?

Don't look now, but one of the hottest companies on the U.S. stock market is also one of its oldest. Glass products specialist Corning (NYSE: GLW) is that company, and its shares have risen a hard-to-believe 311% over the past year compared to the 29% rise of the benchmark S&P 500 index it's a component of.

All stocks ultimately obey the law of gravity, however, so is 175-year-old Corning at the peak of its gains, or is there much more upside to come?

Smartphones, Pyrex, and fiber

Corning has done well for more than that single year. If it's known for anything by the general public, it's for being the developer and manufacturer of Gorilla Glass. You probably use this product yourself, as it's chemically treated glass that serves as the display in smartphones and similar wares (like Apple's iDevices) and is used in many computer monitors.

Image source: Getty Images.

As successful as it's been, Gorilla Glass is only one of tens of thousands of specialty products the company sells across numerous categories such as automotive and life sciences.

With that kind of product assortment, it shouldn't come as a surprise that Corning is a major supplier of the optical fiber used to connect artificial intelligence (AI) processors so they can "talk" to each other almost instantaneously.

This has been the real engine of the stock's explosive growth. With insatiable demand for AI build-outs, Corning is seen as a hot AI infrastructure play by many investors.

It doesn't hurt that the company has been in the headlines lately because of this work. Late in March, for example, it and social media titan Meta Platforms announced that ground had been broken on the expansion of a Corning facility in North Carolina.

The aim of the project, part of a massive supply deal between Corning and Meta valued at up to $6 billion, is to create nothing less than the largest fiber optic cable factory on this planet.

Growth is currently hot, but...

Corning's recent financials reflect the strength of its enduringly popular products (like Gorilla Glass) and its involvement in AI infrastructure. Its annual revenue for 2025 leaped 19% over the previous year's figure to hit $15.6 billion, while "core" net income not in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) rose 29% to just under $2.2 billion, or $2.52 per share.

Will that momentum be sustained, however? Analysts are forecasting more modest growth for this year. Their consensus 2026 revenue forecast is $18.8 billion, an improvement of less than 15%. Per-share core net income should advance by 24% to $3.12. While those numbers wouldn't represent a sharp, sudden slowdown, they'd still indicate a slowdown. And no investor likes declining growth figures.

Throughout its long history, Corning has always been a cyclical company. So what we might be looking at here is not necessarily the peak of a cycle, but at least a rapid approach to one. On its valuations -- a forward P/E of 55 and a price-to-sales ratio of 9.5 -- the cyclical stock is priced for sustained, long-term success at its current levels.

So, although the company's business is booming, I don't think its shares can sustain the current bull run for very much longer. I'd look elsewhere for a stock with greater potential.

Eric Volkman has positions in Apple. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Apple, Corning, and Meta Platforms and is short shares of Apple. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.