Corning announces financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2019

Corning incorporated (NYSE: GLW) recently announced its fourth quarter and full year financial results for 2019 "Thanks to the strong performance of the three business units, the company's sales in 2019 increased by 2% We promote key development projects and take actions to deal with the substantial impact of market and customer dynamics in the field of display technology and optical communication, "said Wei Wende, chairman, CEO and President of the board of directors "Although the company's growth in 2019 does not reach the long-term goal, our performance once again exceeds that of our market We hope to build up the growth momentum in 2020 and make steady progress towards the goal of the four-year strategy and development framework." In 019, Corning successfully achieved the 2016-2019 strategic capital allocation framework goal In four years, it returned more than US $12.5 billion to shareholders, including a 67% increase in dividend per share, and continued to invest in longer-term development plans The growth of all businesses is higher than that of their respective markets, three of which have performed well: O in the context of the overall decline of the automobile market in the middle of a single digit, thanks to the innovative application of Corning's proprietary gasoline particulate filter (GPF), the Ministry of environmental science and technology's annual sales increased by 16% O although the overall market sales of smart phones decreased by 3%, the annual sales of special materials increased by 8% thanks to the innovative application of the industry-leading cover glass O life sciences achieved a $1 billion sales milestone, with business growth almost double that of this strong market • Corning showed that the percentage of annual price drop for glass was in the low single digit range • with the approval of FDA, the company promotes the commercialization of Corning valor ® glass products In terms of automotive glass solutions, the new plant will support the growing product demand from industry leaders Financial performance: in the fourth quarter, GAAP sales reached US $2.82 billion and core sales reached US $2.85 billion; in the whole year, GAAP sales reached US $11.5 billion and core sales reached US $11.7 billion • GAAP earnings per share in the fourth quarter was US $0.01, core earnings per share was US $0.46; GAAP earnings per share in the whole year was US $1.07, core earnings per share was US $1.76 The main difference between GAAP and core revenue comes from the related expenditure of capacity adjustment • three businesses in kangningqiang's strong business portfolio achieved growth, alleviated the impact of market instability on other businesses, and finally achieved an annual sales growth of 2% "In the fourth quarter, the company's sales and earnings per share met expectations, and adjusted operating cash flow increased by more than $1 billion," said Tony tripeny, executive vice president and chief financial officer "The optical communication business adjusts the production capacity and operation cost according to the market demand This resulted in the company's fourth quarter gross margin lower than expected " Progress of market access platform in 2019 • automotive applications: particle filter (GPF) product application accelerated growth, with sales exceeding US $250 million in 2019; cooperation with leading enterprises in the automotive industry including GAC, Visteon, LG Electronics, BOE and Vee greatly promoted autograde Gamma Commercialization of high performance glass solutions; plant capacity in Hefei starts to climb • optical communication: continue to innovate and collaborate with industry leaders including Intel, Verizon, centurylink and Altice portal to promote 5g and large-scale data centers to improve network efficiency; rocketribbon, an ultra-high density optical cable applied to large-scale data centers Gamma And other product innovations have won global recognition Mobile consumer electronics: with a new generation of cover glass solutions and deeper customer commitments such as Apple's $250 million investment, Corning has further expanded its industry leadership and laid a strong foundation for continuous innovation • life science utensils: a leading pharmaceutical manufacturer has been approved by the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to use Corning valor ® glass as the primary packaging for its marketed drugs On this basis, the company signed commercial agreements with three leading pharmaceutical companies, and continued to expand its market leading position in the two key growth areas of cell culture and gene therapy with the leading advantages of innovation and production capacity • display technology: continue to move towards stable returns; create richer entertainment experience through the innovation of display glass technology; the leading 10.5 generation glass substrate supports the development of large-scale TV; the price of Corning display glass remains moderate Looking forward to the 2020-2023 strategic and development framework, Corning is confident to achieve the goals set out in the strategic and development framework Under this framework, the company will continue to focus its investment portfolio, use its financial strength to achieve significant organic growth in the next four years, and create more profits for shareholders By 2023, Corning is expected to achieve a compound annual growth of 6% - 8% in sales and 12% - 15% in earnings per share, and plans to invest $10-12 billion in R & D, capital operation and M & A At the same time, Corning also plans to improve its operating profit margin and return on capital, and return $8-10 billion to shareholders, including dividends per share with an annual growth rate of no less than 10% "To achieve our strategic and development framework goals, we expect to grow our annual sales by $3 to $4 billion by the end of 2023 and improve our profitability," said Mr weiwende We believe that the company has the ability to achieve these goals because we are always in close agreement with the main growth drivers in the market access platform, so that we can develop and deliver new product categories In short, we plan to integrate more Corning technology into products that consumers have already purchased This provides us with a development mechanism in a challenging environment " "We firmly believe that the benefits of the implementation of the framework have been demonstrated For the automotive application market, the annual sales volume of our environmental technology business increased by 16% in the context of low automobile sales In the mobile consumer electronics market, even though smartphone sales have declined, the annual sales of our special materials business have increased by 8% In the life science utensil Market, thanks to our new products of cell culture and gene therapy, the growth rate of the company's life science business continues to exceed the market growth rate " He added Fourth quarter and full year results of 2019 compared with previous years (except per share gold, all in millions of US dollars) * core performance measures are non GAAP financial measures The adjustment between GAAP measures and non GAAP measures can be found in the form that was issued with the press release, or on the company's website **From July 1, 2019, we will replace "core income" with "core net income" These terms can be converted to each other, and the basic algorithm is the same Department performance and Outlook "we are firmly optimistic about the company's long-term prospects and will continue to focus on key operational priorities These will help accelerate growth and help us achieve the goals of the strategy and development framework We are preparing for a smooth ramp up of generation 10.5 plant capacity, coordinating costs and capacity according to current demand, and commercializing innovative projects to support our customers " Tripeny said "In 2020, we expect the business of special materials, environmental technology and life science to continue to grow At the same time, with the increase of sales volume of display technology and optical communication business, the company expects to resume the growth trend of sales volume and profit margin in the second half of the year " Tripeny added Display technology: display technology's annual sales volume is 3.3 billion US dollars, and its net income is 786 million US dollars Benefiting from the growth of 10.5 generation line production in this year, the growth rate of Corning's glass sales volume is the middle of single digit, higher than the overall market Corning showed that the percentage of annual price decline of glass improved to the low single digit range Fourth quarter sales were $795 million and net income was $180 million In the fourth quarter, Corning showed that glass sales rose by a single digit low on a month on month basis Corning expects that the sales growth of display glass in the whole year 2020 will be in the middle of single digit, which is equivalent to the expected growth of display glass market in the middle of single digit The company expects the annual drop in glass prices to continue to moderate, with the annual drop expected to be in the middle of a single digit In the first quarter of this year, Corning showed that its glass sales volume is expected to decrease from a month on month basis by a single digit low Optical communication: the annual sales volume of optical communication department in 2019 is 4.1 billion US dollars, down 3% year on year In comparison, the annual year-on-year decline rate of the overall optical communication market reached a single digit high Net income for the year fell 17% year on year Its fourth quarter sales were $903 million and net income was $62 million The profitability of the business is affected by the decrease of sales volume and the reduction of production to reduce inventory backlog The company expects that the weak sales volume from the second half of 2019 will continue to the first half of 2020, and the annual sales volume of the Ministry of optical communications in 2020 is expected to decline by 5% to 10% Driven by projects such as 5g network, fiber to home and large-scale data center deployment, Corning expects the sales and profits of the optical communication department to resume the year-on-year growth trend in the second half of 2020 According to the company's forecast, the business unit's sales in the first quarter of 2020 are expected to decline about 25% year-on-year compared with strong project expenditures in the first quarter of 2019 Environmental Science and technology: the annual sales volume of the Ministry of environmental science and technology in 2019 is US $1.5 billion, an increase of 16% year on year, which is mainly due to the continuous growth of market demand for gasoline particulate filter (GPF), with a net income of US $263 million Its fourth quarter sales rose 17% year-on-year to $374 million Compared with the same period last year, the company expects that the sales growth percentage of the Ministry of environmental science and technology in the first quarter of 2020 and the whole year will reach the middle of single digit Special materials: the sales volume of special materials department in 2019 is in line with the expectation Thanks to the R & D of innovative products and the strong market demand for high-end glass, its annual sales increased by 8% year-on-year Sales in the fourth quarter were $453 million, up 14% from the fourth quarter of 2018 The company expects that the percentage of year-on-year sales growth of the special materials department in 2020 will reach a single digit high The percentage year-on-year increase in sales in the first quarter is expected to be in the middle of the single digits Life science: the sales volume of the Ministry of life science increased by 7% in 2019, and the sales volume in the fourth quarter was strong, continuously exceeding the market growth rate In the first quarter of 2020 and the whole year, the sales volume of the Department of life sciences will reach the middle of single digit year-on-year growth About Corning company, Corning company (www.corning Com) is a leading innovator of global materials science, and has been committed to life changing breakthroughs and innovations for the past 167 years With its expertise in glass technology, ceramic technology and optical physics, as well as its advanced production and process capabilities, Corning has been developing innovative industries and products to improve people's lives Corning has achieved success through continuous investment in R & D, unique combination of material and process innovation, and close mutual trust and cooperation with leading global customers Corning has diversified business scope and good cooperation ability to meet the growing market demand and help customers capture more opportunities in the dynamic market Today, Corning's products cover optical communication, mobile consumer electronics, display technology, automotive applications and life science utensils Corning's leading products include loss resistant protective glass for mobile devices; precision glass for advanced displays; and