Corning Inc., said earnings for the year could be about 20% above last year's results, if the company continues its current performance for the remainder of 1999. Corning made US$121.8m, or 49 cents per diluted share, in the second quarter and beat Wall Street's estimates of 46 cents per share. The company attributed the strong growth to impressive sales of its large effective area fibre (which allows more channels of information to be sent over long distances), its liquid display glass in flat computer monitors, catalytic converters and optical amplifiers. The earnings compare with US$92.7m, or US$0.39 per diluted share, before special gains from the recapitalisation and sale of controlling interest of the consumer housewares. Indlucing one-time gains, second-quarter 1998 net income would have been US$123.8m, or US$0.53 per share.
