The Quarter in Brief
Corning reported its third quarter of 2026, the three months to September 30, before the market opened on October 27. Reported (GAAP) sales were $4.86 billion, up 18% from a year earlier, and reported earnings per share were $0.78, up from $0.50. Core sales, the company's own measure that values the currencies it has hedged at its hedge rates, were $5.08 billion, up 19%. Core earnings per share, which also leave out hedging gains and losses, acquisition costs, restructuring charges and some tax items, were $0.91, up 36% from $0.67.
Analysts had expected about $0.89 of core earnings per share and about $5.03 billion of core sales, according to the Zacks consensus, so both came in ahead. Both were also above the range Corning itself had given in July. What set the quarter apart was Optical Communications, the fiber, cable and connector business: its sales grew 44% to $2.38 billion, and it now makes up almost half of the company's sales, carried by demand from data centers built for generative AI.