Corning Inc. reports results on Tuesday 27 October, before the market opens. Growth is coming with wider margins, so profit is rising faster than sales. Revenue over the twelve months to Q2 2026 was $17.0 billion, which rose 19.4% on the year before.
Source: reported quarterly EPS and aggregated third-party estimates. Historical surprises are context, not a forecast.
View chart data
| Period | Reported EPS | Analysts' estimate |
|---|---|---|
| Sep '25 | $0.67 | $0.66 |
| Dec '25 | $0.72 | $0.71 |
| Mar '26 | $0.70 | $0.69 |
| Jun '26 | $0.78 | $0.75 |
What analysts expect
Analysts have been raising their forecasts going into the report. For the quarter, the analysts’ average EPS estimate is $0.88, in a range from $0.81 to $0.90. The average revenue estimate for the quarter is $5.0 billion. At the same time, the analysts’ average estimate for full-year EPS is $3.29, which would be up 30.6% on last year (based on 17 analysts). That estimate has risen 3.0% over the past 90 days. Of the analysts’ recommendations, 14 are positive, 4 neutral and 0 negative.
Company guidance
In its latest earnings release, management set third quarter core EPS guidance at $0.85 to $0.89. In its latest earnings release, management set third quarter core sales guidance at $4.9 billion to $5.0 billion.
Earnings surprise model
The model estimates EPS could land above the analysts’ average estimate by 0.8%. Its estimated chance of an EPS beat is 75.0%, based on the last 4 quarters. The model shrinks the median recent surprise toward zero and uses a neutral prior for beat frequency; this small sample is a reference estimate, not company guidance.
Track record against estimates
The company reported EPS above the analysts’ average estimate in 4 of the last 4 quarters. Last quarter, EPS of $0.78 compared with an estimate of $0.75, above it by 3.5%.
The trends going in
That growth rate was down 0.6 percentage points on the rate a quarter earlier. The trailing gross margin was 36.4%. The trailing operating margin was 15.3%, up 3.3 percentage points from a year earlier. The trailing net margin was 11.2%. Net income over the twelve months was $1.9 billion, which rose 132.0% on the year before.
Cash flow
Today’s cash margin sits near the top of the company’s own record. Operating cash flow over the twelve months was $3.9 billion, up 79.5% on the year before. Capital spending was $1.5 billion, or 9.0% of revenue. Free cash flow, operating cash flow less capital spending, was $2.4 billion, up 100.6% on the year before. Free cash flow was 14.1% of revenue (the free-cash-flow margin), up 5.7 percentage points from a year earlier. The average diluted share count rose 0.5% over the year.
In context
Measured against its own history: today’s free-cash-flow margin of 14.1% is above every one of the company’s own past quarterly readings, which have ranged from 1.9% to 13.1%. Today’s operating margin of 15.3% is higher than 94% of past readings (1.7% to 15.9%). Today’s twelve-month revenue growth rate of 19.4% is higher than 87% of past readings (−11.3% to 27.7%).
Questions this report will answer
Whether the slowdown in revenue growth continues. Whether results land above or below the analysts’ expectations set out above. At the same time, whether margins hold at the trailing levels above. The next filing will show whether the trends above continue, slow or reverse.
The valuation angle
Our model translates these figures into value. In our model, growth 5 percentage points lower would lower the value by 25.4%, and 5 percentage points higher would raise it by 32.5%. A free-cash-flow margin 1 percentage point lower would lower it by 6.8%.
