Corning Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:GLW)

Corning Incorporated (NYSE:GLW) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Traders purchased 26,368 put options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 77% compared to the typical volume of 14,915 put options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on GLW. Fox Advisors upgraded Corning from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $45.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, June 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on Corning from $47.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, July 29th. Mizuho upgraded shares of Corning from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $44.00 to $47.00 in a research note on Wednesday. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Corning from a “moderate sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $39.00 price target on shares of Corning in a report on Friday, July 26th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nine have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $45.62.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Corning news, VP Jeffrey W. Evenson sold 12,830 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $37.39, for a total transaction of $479,713.70. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 57,280 shares in the company, valued at $2,141,699.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Corning during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $247,721,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in Corning by 35.1% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 17,200,828 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $566,941,000 after buying an additional 4,464,893 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in Corning by 9.0% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 31,312,779 shares of the electronics maker’s stock worth $953,474,000 after buying an additional 2,597,878 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its stake in Corning by 41.7% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 6,212,356 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $189,166,000 after buying an additional 1,828,097 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Natixis boosted its holdings in shares of Corning by 2,405.2% during the first quarter. Natixis now owns 1,807,801 shares of the electronics maker’s stock valued at $59,585,000 after acquiring an additional 1,735,638 shares during the period. 69.80% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Corning Stock Down 0.9 %

NYSE:GLW traded down $0.37 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $41.71. The stock had a trading volume of 240,167 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,096,464. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 1.57 and a quick ratio of 0.98. The company has a market capitalization of $35.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 59.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.05. Corning has a 1-year low of $25.26 and a 1-year high of $46.39. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $40.92 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $36.01.

Corning (NYSE:GLW) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The electronics maker reported $0.47 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.46 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $3.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.55 billion. Corning had a return on equity of 12.69% and a net margin of 3.53%. The business’s revenue was up 3.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.45 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Corning will post 1.9 EPS for the current year.

Corning Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 30th will be issued a dividend of $0.28 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 30th. This represents a $1.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.69%. Corning’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 157.75%.

About Corning

Corning Incorporated engages in the display technologies, optical communications, environmental technologies, specialty materials, and life sciences businesses in the United States and internationally. The company's Display Technologies segment offers glass substrates for flat panel displays, including liquid crystal displays and organic light-emitting diodes that are used in televisions, notebook computers, desktop monitors, tablets, and handheld devices.