This Manufacturing Company That Supplies Tech, Automotive, and Communication Industries is Quietly Outperforming Its Competitors. Is the Stock a Buy in 2026?
Key Points
Corning’s stock has more than tripled over the past five years.
Its stock is getting expensive, but it might deserve that premium valuation.
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Corning (NYSE: GLW), a leading producer of durable glass, optical components, and lab equipment for life science companies, is often considered a slow-growth blue chip stock. It was founded 175 years ago, and it's been in the S&P 500 for the past 31 years.
Yet over the past five years, Corning's stock has rallied 223%, outpacing the S&P 500's 61% gain. It also outperformed many of its industry peers, including Vistance Networks (NASDAQ: VISN) and Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE: TMO), whose stocks only rose 19% and 5%, respectively. Let's see why Corning's stock soared -- and if it still has room to run.
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Why did Corning's stock soar?
From 2020 to 2025, Corning's core sales (excluding currency fluctuations, mark-to-market adjustments, one-time expenses, and other noise) grew at a 7.5% CAGR. Its core earnings per share (EPS) increased at a 12.6% CAGR.
The pandemic and soaring interest rates throttled Corning's growth in 2020 and 2023, respectively, but its sales and EPS growth accelerated again in 2024 and 2025. Four major tailwinds drove that acceleration.
|
Metric |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Core Sales Growth |
(2%) |
23% |
5% |
(8%) |
7% |
13% |
|
Core EPS Growth |
(21%) |
49% |
1% |
(19%) |
15% |
29% |
Data source: Corning.
First, the growth of the cloud infrastructure and artificial intelligence (AI) markets drove more enterprise customers and hyperscalers to upgrade their data centers. As a result, its sales of optical communications equipment -- the "plumbing" for those data centers -- skyrocketed.
Second, the top telecom companies purchased more optical equipment from Corning to expand their 5G and fiber networks. Third, its sales of glass products (including its display panel and Gorilla Glass for consumer electronics and cars) rose again as those markets stabilized. Lastly, Corning's margins expanded as it streamlined spending, increased factory utilization, and generated more revenue from its higher-margin optical business.
Is Corning's stock still worth buying?
Corning's stock soared because it was revalued as a high-growth cloud and AI play. From 2025 to 2028, analysts expect its net sales and EPS to increase at CAGRs of 14% and 35% by generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), respectively, as those tailwinds persist.
But at $146 per share, Corning's stock isn't cheap at 55 times this year's GAAP earnings and 47 times its projected core EPS. Vistance, which produces networking and communications equipment, trades at 54 times this year's earnings. Thermo Fisher, which competes against Corning in the slower-growth lab equipment space, trades at 25 times this year's earnings.
I think Corning is still worth nibbling on at these levels, since it's a foundational stock in the booming cloud and AI markets. However, I'd pay close attention to its rising valuations, which could limit its near-term gains and make it an easy target for short sellers if the market crashes.
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Leo Sun has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Corning and Thermo Fisher Scientific. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
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